About US$83.5 trillion ($128.5 trillion) of wealth will be transferred in the next 20–25 years, according to global wealth manager UBS.
UBS said it estimated $9 trillion of this would be shifted between spouses, mostly in the Americas, and more than 10% of the total was likely to be transferred to the next generation by women who tend to outlive men and be younger than their partner.
It said the world had been getting richer across all wealth segments, wealth mobility was likely to be upward than downward, and the number of millionaires was growing.
“Wealth is steadily growing throughout the world – albeit at different speeds – with very few exceptions,” UBS said In its Global Wealth Report 2024.
This was the 15th edition of the report, which analysed 56 key markets representing 92% of the world’s wealth, and was backed by 30 years of data.
The proportion of people in the lowest wealth bracket had shrunk since 2008, while the proportion of people in every other wealth bracket had grown.
UBS said millionaires already accounted for 1.5% of the adults analysed in 2023 with the United States providing the most (almost 22 million), followed by Mainland China (more than six million) and the United Kingdom third (half of China’s number).
It said analysis of household wealth over the past 30 years showed a substantial share of people moved between wealth brackets in their lifetime.
“In every wealth band and over any time horizon, it’s consistently likelier for people to climb up the wealth ladder than slip down it. In fact, our analysis shows about one in three individuals moves into a higher wealth band within a decade,” the wealth manager said.
“And, while extreme movements up and down the ladder are uncommon, they are not unheard of. Even leaps from the bottom to the top are a reality for a part of the population.
“The likelihood of getting richer tends to decrease over time, however. Our analysis shows the longer it takes adults to gain appreciably in wealth, the slower the increase tends to be in future years.”