In 1996, years after the death of his father Malcolm Forbes, he changed the name credited to him on the Forbes Magazine masthead from Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. to Steve Forbes.
Only 16 when the death of his uncle Bruce Forbes left his father in sole control of the company, young Steve has spent essentially his whole career there, becoming President of Forbes Inc. in 1980 and succeeding as Editor-in-Chief on his father's death in 1990. His brothers Christopher Forbes, vice chairman, Robert Forbes, and Timothy Forbes have all long worked for the magazine or at least the parent company as well.
Malcolm Forbes left Steve 51% of the voting shares, but a minority of the non-voting shares, in Forbes Inc., and announced this well in advance, as he wanted the company to have a clear leader. However, when Steve Forbes ran for President of the United States in 1996 and 2000, he sold some of his voting shares to other family members to help finance his run. He did not come close to securing the Republican nomination, despite some significant shares of the vote in some primaries, and returned to heading the magazine and company.