Billionaires\u2019 children and spouses are inheriting more assets than ever in a \u201cgreat wealth transfer\u201d that is creating a growing class of super-rich who did not make their own fortunes, according to a UBS report. <\/p>\n
Ninety-one people became billionaires through inheritance after receiving a combined $298 billion in the year to April, research by the Swiss bank found. Of those, 64 were male and 27 female. <\/p>\n
The total value of wealth transfer through inheritance rose more than a third from the previous year and was more than in any previous 12-month period since reporting began in 2015.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Cavalli, head of strategic clients at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: \u201cThese heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that\u2019s intensifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Billionaires\u2019 children are expected to inherit at least $5.9 trillion over the next 15 years, UBS estimated.<\/p>\n
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS\u2019s high net worth clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all the regions of the world.<\/p>\n
The total number of billionaires has grown to 2,919, up from 2,682 a year ago, according to UBS. They control a total of $15.8 trillion, an increase from about $14 trillion a year earlier.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He donates \u00a32.1 million a day. Meet the UK\u2019s most generous man<\/a><\/p>\n The report comes as cash-strapped European governments consider ways to tax the rich more to help fund public services. In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years, according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a 50 per cent proposed tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more after critics warned it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.<\/p>\n Leading investors including Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, have warned that the artificial intelligence revolution will intensify the concentration of global wealth among a relatively small group of people unless there is a wealth \u201credistribution policy\u201d. Billionaires in the technology sector saw their wealth increase by 23.8 per cent in the year, according to the bank.<\/p>\n The UBS report found that 196 self-made entrepreneurs became new billionaires in the year to April, with a combined wealth of $386.5 billion. Their wealth was derived from a variety of sectors including marketing software, genetics, restaurants, infrastructure and liquefied natural gas. <\/p>\n The tally of new self-made entrepreneurs was the second-highest on record, after 2021, when 360 self-made billionaires accounted for $782 billion. However, in that year wealth creation was attributed to asset price appreciation after the pandemic, instead of last year\u2019s widespread business creation. <\/p>\n America led the way for new self-made billionaires, with 87 of the new crop domiciled in the US. They included Ben Lamm, co-founder of the genetics and bioscience company Colossal, Michael Dorrell, co-founder and chief executive of Stonepeak, an infrastructure investment firm, and Bob Pender and Mike Sabel, who co-founded Venture Global, an LNG exporter that listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January.<\/p>\n