Salient to Investors:
Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada said in their millionaire report for 2012:
- North America reclaimed the most millionaires top spot.
- 3.73 million North Americans had at least $1 million in investable assets versus 3.68 million in Asia-Pacific.
- The combined wealth of the world’s millionaires rose 10 percent to a record $46.2 trillion after declining 1.7 percent in 2011.
- North America was the richest region with $12.7 trillion of high-net-worth assets versus $12 trillion in Asia-Pacific.
- Those with at least $30 million to invest rose by 11 percent following declines in 2011.
- All regions had strong gains except Latin America, which had slow economic growth and challenged equity markets.
- Millionaires worldwide rose 9.2 percent to 12 million, Europe rose 7.5 percent to 3.41 million.
- Global wealth will grow 6.5 percent annually over the next 3 years to $55.8 trillion in 2015. led by 9.8 percent growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
- A third of the world’s affluent were primarily focused on preserving wealth, while 26 percent sought to increase assets.
- A surprising 30 percent of high-net-worth wealth was held in cash and deposits.
- 42 percent of millionaires in the Middle East and Africa were focused on wealth accumulation, 33 percent on preservation.
- North America’s wealthy held most of their wealth in equities, 37 percent
- Latin America’s rich had 30 percent of their wealth in real estate.
- Asia-Pacific’s rich had 25 percent of their wealth in real estate.
- Europe’s rich has 27 percent in real estate and 27 percent in cash.
Barclays said the dominant source of wealth for the world’s richest people is from entrepreneurship rather than inheritance, and wealth is being created twice as quickly in developing regions including Asia-Pacific, where it took rich people an average of 12 years to accumulate their assets, and Africa, where it took 16 years.
Pew Research Center in April found that the US economy had recovered for households with net worth of $500,000 or more, but the recession continued for almost everyone else. Pew said wealthy US households boosted their household wealth by 21 percent between 2009 and 2011 while the rest of America lost 4.9 percent.
Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-18/north-american-millionaires-regain-top-spot-report-finds.html
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