High-net-worth individual

In this article, we will explore and analyze the impact of High-net-worth individual in different contexts and scopes. Since its emergence, High-net-worth individual has generated a series of debates and controversies that have permeated various social and cultural spheres. Throughout history, High-net-worth individual has left an indelible mark on people's lives, their thoughts and their actions. We will delve into the most relevant aspects, examining how High-net-worth individual has shaped and transformed the world we inhabit, as well as the multiple interpretations it has given rise to. This article seeks to offer a broad and multidisciplinary perspective on High-net-worth individual, inviting the reader to reflect on its meaning and influence on current society.

The United States, China, and India lead the worldwide distribution of high-net-worth individuals (billionaires) in 2017.

In the financial services industry, a high-net-worth individual (HNWI) is a person who maintains liquid assets at or above a certain threshold. Typically the criterion is that the person's financial assets (excluding their primary residence) are valued over US$1 million.[1][2] A secondary level, a very-high-net-worth individual (VHNWI), is someone with a net worth of at least US$5 million.[1] The terminal level, an ultra-high-net-worth individual (UHNWI), holds US$30 million in investible assets (adjusted for inflation).[3][4] Individuals with a net worth of over US$1 billion are considered to occupy a special bracket of the UHNWI.[2][5] These thresholds are broadly used in studies of wealth inequality, government regulation, investment suitability requirements, marketing, financing standards, and general corporate strategy.

As of December 2023, it was estimated that there are just over 16 million HNWIs in the world, according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2024 by Henley & Partners. The United States had the highest number of HNWIs (5.5 million) of any country, with California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois domiciling the majority stateside. New York City is the wealthiest and most populous city, with 349,500 HNWIs.[6] UHNWIs constitute only 0.003% of the world's population and hold 13% of the world's total wealth.[7] In 2017, 226,450 people were designated as UHNWI, with their combined total wealth increasing to $27 trillion.[8]

United States: SEC regulations

See also: Accredited investor

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires all SEC-registered investment advisers to periodically file a report known as Form ADV.[9] Form ADV requires each investment adviser to state how many of their clients are "high-net-worth individuals", among other details; its Glossary of Terms explains that a "high-net-worth individual" is a person who is either a "qualified client" under rule 205-3 of the Advisers Act (currently a person with at least $1,100,000 managed by the reporting investment adviser, or whose net worth the investment adviser reasonably believes exceeds $2,200,000 without counting their primary residence) or who is a "qualified purchaser" as defined in section 2(a)(51)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act mandates that the definition of a qualified client be reviewed every five years and adjusted for inflation.[10] For SEC purposes, a person's net worth may include assets held jointly with their spouse. Unlike the definitions used in the financial and banking trade, the SEC's definition of HNWI includes the value of a person's verifiable non-financial assets, such as a primary residence or art collection.[11]

Annual World Wealth Report

The World Wealth Report was co-published by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, previously known as Cap Gemini Ernst & Young who worked together since 1993, investigating the "needs of high-net-worth individuals" to "successfully serve this market segment". Their first annual World Wealth Report was published in 1996.[12] The World Wealth Report defines HNWIs as those who hold at least US$1 million in assets excluding primary residence and UHNWIs as those who hold at least US$30 million in assets excluding primary residence.[13]

The report states that in 2008 there were 8.6 million HNWIs worldwide, a decline of 14.9% from 2007. The total HNWI wealth worldwide totaled US$32.8 trillion, a 19.5% decrease from 2007. The UHNWIs experienced the greater loss, losing 24.6% in population and 23.9% in accumulated wealth. The report revised its 2007 projections that HNWI financial wealth would reach US$59.1 trillion by 2012 and revised this downward to a 2013 HNWI wealth valued at $48.5 trillion advancing at an annual rate of 8.1%.[13] The "World Ultra Wealth Report", on UHNW populations—those with "$30m or more in net worth"—which was published on June 27, 2017, "this year revealed global growth of 3.5% to 226,450 individuals and a 1.5% increase of their total combined wealth to $27 trillion."[8]

The 2018 World Wealth Report[14] was jointly produced by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management and included, for the first time, the Global HNW Insights Survey produced in collaboration with Scorpio Partnership.[15] The inaugural survey represented one of the largest and most in-depth surveys of HNWIs ever conducted, surveying more than 4,400 across 21 major wealth markets in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa.

HNWI wealth distribution (by region)[14]
Region HNWI population HNWI wealth
Global 20.8 million $80 trillion
North America 7 million $24.3 trillion
Asia-Pacific 6.9 million $24 trillion
Europe 5.4 million $17.5 trillion
Middle East 0.8 million $3.2 trillion
Latin America 0.6 million $9 trillion
Africa 0.2 million $1.8 trillion

The World Wealth Report has estimated the number and combined investable wealth of high-net-worth individuals as follows (using the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Calculator):[16]

World Wealth Report Findings 1996-2019
Year Number of
HNWIs
(millions) 		Total wealth of HNWIs
(trillions USD)
Nominal In Jan 1996 $
1996[17] 4.5 16.6 16.6
1997[17] 5.2 19.1 18.54
1998[17] 5.9 21.6 20.6
1999[17] 7.0 25.5 24.0
2000[17] 7.2 27.0 24.7
2001[17] 7.1 26.2 23.1
2002[17] 7.3 26.7 23.3
2003[17] 7.7 28.5 24.2
2004[17] 8.2 30.7 25.6
2005[17] 8.7 33.3 27.0
2006[18] 9.5 37.2 29.0
2007[19] 10.1 40.7 31.1
2008[19] 8.6 32.8 24.0
2009[19] 10.0 39.0 28.5
2010[19] 10.9 42.7 30.4
2011[20] 11.0 42.0 29.5
2012[2] 12.0 46.2 31.5
2013[2] 13.7 52.6 35.3
2014[2] 14.7 56.4 37.2
2015[2] 15.4 58.7 38.8
2016[2] 16.5 63.5 41.4
2017[2] 18.1 70.2 44.6
2018[2] 18.0 68.1 42.4
2019[2] 19.6 74.0 45.4

Markets

Certain products cater to the wealthy, whose conspicuous consumption of luxury goods and services includes, for example: mansions, yachts, first-class airline tickets and private jets, and personal umbrella insurance.[21] As economic growth has made historically expensive items affordable for the middle-class, purchases have trended towards intangible products such as education.[21] In the United States, concierge medicine is an emerging trend as of 2017.[22]

Banking and finance

Main articles: Private banking and Wealth management

Most global banks, such as Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS, have a separate business unit with designated teams consisting of client advisors and product specialists exclusively for UHNWI. These clients are often considered to have characteristics similar to institutional investors because the vast majority of their net worth and current income is derived from passive sources rather than labor.

By 2006, asset managers working for HNW individuals invested more than £300 billion on behalf of their clients. These wealth managers are bankers who in 2006, earned multimillion-pound salaries and owned their own companies and equity funds.[23] In 2006, a list of the 50 top investment bankers was published by the Spear's Wealth Management Survey.

Magazines

Certain magazines, such as Monocle,[24] Robb Report,[25] and Worth, are designed for a high net worth audience.

Offshore bank

Main article: Offshore bank

By 2012, according to Reuters, the UHNW individuals held $32 trillion in offshore havens, representing $280 billion in lost income tax revenues.[26]

Retail

Brands in various sectors, such as Bentley, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce actively target UHNWI and HNWI to sell their products. In 2006, Rolls-Royce researchers suggested there were 80,000 people in ultra-high-net-worth category around the world. UHNW individuals "have, on average, eight cars and three or four homes. Three-quarters own a jet aircraft and most have a yacht."[27]

Number of millionaires by city

As of December 2023, New York was the wealthiest city in the world with 350,000 HNWIs according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2024 by Henley & Partners.[28] The amount of wealth held by people in New York City is nearly $3 trillion.[29] Some places have a sharp, quantitative increase in seasonal wealthy residents including cities such as Paris and Miami, Rocky Mountains ski towns like Aspen, and various beachfront towns of the French Riviera like Cannes.[28]

Rank City Number of
millionaires
(2023)[28]		 Millionaire increase
2013–2023[28]		 Wealth held by residents (2021)[29]
1 United States New York City 349,500 48% $2.9T
2 United States San Francisco Bay Area 305,700 82% $2.6T
3 Japan Tokyo 298,300 -5% $2.5T
4 Singapore Singapore 244,800 64%
5 France Greater Paris 235,000 28% $2.3T
6 United Kingdom London 227,000 -15% $2.3T
7 United States Los Angeles 212,100 35% $1.3T
8 Australia Sydney 147,000 34% $1.1T
9 Hong Kong Hong Kong 143,400 -4%
10 China Beijing 125,600 90% $2.0T

Number of millionaires per city

The following list is a list of the cities with the most $US millionaires as of December 2018 per the 2019 World Ultra Wealth Report published by Wealth-X:[30]

Rank City Number of millionaires
(2018)
1 United States New York City 978,810
2 Japan Tokyo 593,025
3 United States Los Angeles 576,255
4 Hong Kong Hong Kong 391,595
5 United Kingdom London 372,270
6 United States Chicago 353,775
7 France Paris 345,175
8 United States San Francisco 314,055
9 United States Washington, D.C. 301,495
10 United States Dallas 298,220

Number of UHNWIs per city

There are three different sources compiling these statistics for cities: the most recent data is from Altrata, which found that the four cities with the highest number of ultra-high net worth individuals, as of 2023, were New York City (16,630), Hong Kong (12,546), Los Angeles (8,955), and Tokyo (6,445).[31] Below are previous rankings from Wealth-X and the Knight Frank Wealth Report:

2020 Wealth-X Report
Rank City Number of
UHNWIs
(2019)[32]
1 United States New York City 10,435
2 Hong Kong Hong Kong 9,950
3 Japan Tokyo 7,800
4 United States Los Angeles 6,150
5 France Paris 4,670
6 United Kingdom London 4,535
7 United States Chicago 3,890
8 United States San Francisco 3,410
9 United States Washington, D.C. 3,230
10 Italy Rome 3,165
2019 Knight Frank Wealth Report
Rank City Number of
UHNWIs
(2018)[33]
1 United Kingdom London 4,944
2 Singapore Singapore 3,598
3 Japan Tokyo 3,732
4 United States New York City 3,378
5 China Beijing 1,673
6 France Paris 1,667
7 South Korea Seoul 1,594
8 Taiwan Taipei 1,519
9 Switzerland Zürich 1,507
10 Italy Rome 1,263

The World Ultra Wealth Report 2013 was co-published by Wealth-X and UBS. The fifth edition of the report was published on June 27, 2017.[8] Previous World Ultra Wealth Reports were published independently by Wealth-X, in 2011 and 2012 respectively:

World UHNW distribution by wealth tier[3]
Net worth
tier
US$ millions		 2013 2012 2012–2013
Numbers of
UHNWs		 Total wealth
US$ billions		 Numbers of
UHNWs		 Total wealth
US$ billions		 Increase in
numbers of
UHNWs		 Increase in
Total wealth
$1000+ 2,170 6,516 2,160 6,190 0.5% 5.3%
$750 to $999 1,080 929 990 855 9.1% 8.7%
$500 to $749 2,660 1,695 2,475 1,560 7.5% 8.7%
$250 to $499 8,695 3,420 8,090 3,225 7.5% 6.0%
$200 to $249 14,185 3,205 13,500 3,035 5.1% 5.6%
$100 to $199 23,835 3,780 22,290 3,335 6.9% 13.3%
$50 to $99 60,760 4,720 56,205 4,295 8.1% 9.9%
$30 to $49 85,850 3,505 81,670 3,280 5.1% 6.9%
Total 199,235 27,770 187,380 25,775 6.3% 7.7%

Boston Consulting Group Global Wealth Report

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 2014 Global Wealth Report[34] shows that liquid wealth of the super-rich, referenced as Ultra-High-Net-Worth households, had increased by 20% in 2013. BCG uses a household definition of UHNW, which places only those with more than $100 million liquid financial wealth into the UHNW-category, more than the usual $30 million, with which the ultra-category had been created in 2007. They control 5.5% of global financial wealth. 5,000 of them live in the US, followed by China, Britain and Germany. BCG expects the trend toward more concentrated wealth to continue unabated. While financial wealth of the sub-millionaires is expected to increase by 3.7% annually until 2019, the expected growth rate for the super-rich is 9.1%.

UHNW characteristics

By 2013, 65% of the world's UHNW population was self-made, as opposed to 19% who had inherited their fortune and 16% who had inherited and grown their wealth. These proportions change dramatically by gender. In the 2013 report, it was revealed that only 12% of the world's UHNW population is female, and of these, only 33% are self-made, as opposed to 70% of male UHNW.[3] According to the same 2013 report, twenty-two percent of self-made UHNW individuals have derived their wealth from finance, banking and investment. Almost 15% of individuals with inherited wealth are engaged in non-profit and social organisations.[3] As of 2014, Asia's growth was expected to continue,[35] and this change in demographics has significant impact on the various organizations that target UHNW individuals, such as luxury companies, financial institutions, charities and universities.

Number of UHNWIs per country

The following is a list of the countries with the most Ultra high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), as of 2023 as per the 2024 Knight Frank's Wealth Report:,[36] which it defines as person having net worth of $30 million or more.

Rank Country Number of
UHNWIs
(2023)
1 United States United States 225,077
2 China China 98,551
3 Germany Germany 29,021
4 Canada Canada 27,928
5 France France 24,941
6 United Kingdom UK 23,072
7 Japan Japan 21,710
8 Italy Italy 15,952
9 Australia Australia 15,347
10 Switzerland Switzerland 14,734
11 India India 13,263
12 Spain Spain 10,149
13 Netherlands Netherlands 8,390
14 Taiwan Taiwan 7,640
15 South Korea South Korea 7,310

Billionaire Census

The Billionaire Census is a co-publication of Wealth-X and UBS. In 2013 for example, the average net worth of the world's billionaire is US$3 billion, with a liquidity on average of 18% of net worth.[37] 60% of the world's billionaires are self-made, 20% have inherited their fortune and 20% have both inherited and grown their wealth. 18% of the world's billionaires have derived their wealth from finance, banking and investment; as opposed to 9% from industrial conglomerates and 7% from the real estate industry.[37] The average billionaire is 62 years old, and 89% of the world's billionaires are male. Approximately 68% of them have a bachelor's degree or higher levels of education.[37]

UHNWI role in economies

See also: High-net-worth individual § Markets

UHNWIs are notable players in the field of philanthropy; many have their own private foundations and support a variety of causes, from education to poverty relief. Financial institutions are known for their targeting of UHNWIs, having specific parts of their bank designed to manage the wealth of their UHNW clients.[4] In addition, research on the UHNW is particularly important with upcoming intergenerational wealth transfers in the UHNW population.[38] For example, as of 2014, luxury companies typically target UHNW as a separate segment of their clientele. Daily Finance in 2014, projected that growth in Asia's UHNW population looked promising for the future of the luxury industry.[39]

The India's Economic Times said in 2014 that, despite the luxury industry's troubled year with China's luxury spenders, luxury industry experts continued to be optimistic for their long-term performance, especially from UHNWIs.[40] According to Savills and Wealth-X, in 2014, UHNWIs are particularly relevant to the real estate sector, with the total UHNW population's real estate holdings accounting for over US$5 trillion by 2014, or 3% of the world's real estate holdings. This is a huge proportion considering this population is only 0.003% of the world's population.[41]

Migration of HNWIs by country

In South Africa, the term HNWI is often used by SARS to target affluent taxpayers for increased compliance and lifestyle audits.[42]

The following table shows the countries with the highest net inflows of HNWIs in 2024 according to the annual Henley & Partners Wealth Migration Report (figures have been rounded to the nearest 100):[43]

Incoming HNWIs
Rank Country No. of inflow
HNWIs
(2024)
1  United Arab Emirates +6,700
2  United States of America +3,800
3  Singapore +3,500
4  Canada +3,200
5  Australia +2,500

See also

References

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