North America has regained its lead in a ranking of personal wealth, boasting more high-net-worth individuals than the Asia Pacific region with more investable wealth between them.
The result reverses the position in last year’s World Wealth Report by Capgemini Global Financial Services and RBC Wealth Management, when the Asia-Pacific region had more high-net-worth individuals, defined as those with investable assets of $1 million (€0.7 million) or more.
“However, North America’s lead in both population and wealth is likely to be eclipsed again in the future by Asia-Pacific,” says Jean Lassignardie, chief sales and marketing officer at Capgemini. He adds that the wealth of high-net-worth individuals is growing faster in the Asia-Pacific region than in North America.
Across the world, the report found that an extra million people joined the high-net-worth club in 2012, bringing their numbers to 12 million with $46.2 trillion of investable wealth between them.
Of these, 3.73 million live in North America and have a combined wealth of $12.7 trillion, compared with 3.68 million with $12 trillion in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals, defined as those with more than $30 million or more in investable assets, had a particularly good year in 2012, and saw their numbers grow by 11%
A recovery in the equity and real estate markets accounted for much of the rise in wealth.
©2013 funds europe
