Park Il-jun, right, executive vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, bows during an emergency meeting of business groups in Seoul, Monday, after issuing an apology over a controversy surrounding the lobby group’s press release on Korea’s millionaire exodus. Yonhap
British investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners pushed back against recent criticism in Korea of its private wealth migration report, which sparked a controversy here over its credibility.
The report was cited in a press release from the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), showing that the net outflow of millionaires from Korea had been projected to reach 2,400 in 2025, double the 1,200 recorded in 2024 and the fourth-largest globally, following the United Kingdom, China and India.
Sarah Nicklin, head of public relations and communications at Henley & Partners, told The Korea Times via email on Monday that the statistics in question refer to the “projected net loss” of millionaires from Korea in 2024 and 2025, not “final figures.”
The firm’s stance came after President Lee Jae Myung and senior government officials here labeled the report unreliable and rebuked the KCCI for using it to call for reforms in the country’s inheritance tax system.
After the president condemned the chamber’s statement as “fake news” intended to “attack government policy,” KCCI Executive Vice Chairman Park Il-jun publicly apologized Monday, vowing to overhaul the chamber’s research team.
Although Nicklin attributed the report’s figures to New World Wealth, an independent data intelligence firm in South Africa, she also shared a statement Henley & Partners issued last July to defend the credibility of the data.
In that statement, Henley & Partners described New World Wealth’s head of research as a credible and experienced expert in the field, with strong academic credentials and a professional background. It emphasized that New World Wealth’s research has been cited by the U.K. and Australian governments and has been regularly featured in international media such as the BBC, the Guardian, Bloomberg and CNN.
While emphasizing that having access to national tax records could have offered greater technical accuracy, Henley & Partners said New World Wealth’s figures serve as indicators of broader trends, similar to academic modeling exercises that provide valuable directional insights. After the KCCI issued its press release, Korea’s tax authority disclosed its findings that only an average of 139 wealthy individuals move overseas annually.
The British consultancy, however, agreed with the Korean government in criticizing the KCCI for arbitrarily interpreting data from the wealth migration report.
“Henley & Partners did not produce this data, nor does it claim that inheritance tax — or any single policy factor — causes the migration of wealthy individuals,” Nicklin said.
The company made similar remarks in last year’s statement regarding criticism about its data on millionaires leaving the U.K., saying “recent criticisms appear to stem more from the politicization and misuse of the data rather than from flaws in its underlying methodology.”
Andrew Amoils, head of research at New World Wealth, also told The Korea Times that its figures are “modeled estimates” rather than “precise counts.”
“I should note that the KOSPI was up very strongly last year in U.S. dollar terms, so any outflow would have been more than canceled out,” he said. “South Korea saw an 11 percent rise in the number of high-net-worth individuals in 2025 according to our latest stats.”