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by Rupert Neate
October
26, 2018
from
TheGuardian Website
Luxury
yachts in Monaco
More than 40 of the 179 new billionaires
created last year inherited their wealth
and the UBS report's authors expect a further
$3.4tn to be handed down over the next 20 years.
Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images
UBS
report shows
billionaires
increased fortunes by $1.4tn,
more than the
GDP of Spain...
Billionaires made more money in 2017 than in any year in recorded
history.
The richest people on
Earth increased their wealth by a fifth to $8.9tn (£6.9tn),
according to a report by
Swiss bank UBS.
The fortunes of today's super-wealthy have risen at a far greater
rate than at the turn of the 20th century, when families
such as the,
...controlled vast
wealth.
The report by UBS and
accountants PwC said there was so
much money in the hands of the ultra-rich that a new wave of rich
and powerful multi-generational families was being created.
"The past 30 years
have seen far greater wealth creation than the Gilded Age" the
UBS Billionaires 2018 report said.
"That period bred
generations of families in the US and Europe who went on to
influence business, banking, politics, philanthropy and the arts
for more than 100 years.
With wealth set to
pass from entrepreneurs to their heirs in the coming years, the
21st century multi-generational families are being
created."
The world's 2,158
billionaires grew their combined wealth by $1.4tn last year, more
than the GDP of Spain or Australia, as booming stock markets helped
the already very wealthy to achieve the,
"greatest absolute
growth ever".
More than 40 of the 179
new billionaires created last year inherited their wealth, and given
the number of billionaires over 70 the report's authors expect a
further $3.4tn to be handed down over the next 20 years.
"A major wealth
transition has begun," the report said.
"Over the past five
years, the sum passed by deceased billionaires to beneficiaries
has grown by an average of 17% each year, to reach $117bn in
2017. In that year alone, 44 heirs inherited more than a billion
dollars each.
"The calculation is simple. There are 701 billionaires over the
age of 70, whose wealth will transition to heirs and
philanthropy over the next 20 years, given the statistical
probability of average life expectancy."
The 30 richest
septuagenarians or older have a combined net worth of more than
$1tn.
Guardian Graphic
Source: UBS/PwC Billionaires 2018
David Rockefeller,
the last surviving grandchild of the Standard Oil founder
John D Rockefeller, who became the world's first billionaire in
1916, died at the age of 101 last year with a $3.3bn fortune.
An
auction of of the art and antiquities
he and his wife collected - including pieces by Monet, Matisse and
Picasso - raised more than $832m for charities they supported
UBS said the adage that the first generation makes the fortune, the
second generation preserves it and the third generation squanders no
longer applies.
Some families have kept
vast fortunes for five or six generations, and some heirs have even
increased the overall fortune, the report said.
"As we work with our
billionaire clients, many of the next generation seem highly
motivated, committed to their chosen careers, the family
business and/or doing social good," the report said.
One billionaire told the
researchers that:
"The new generation,
born in the internet era, are more willing to take risks. They
have more information and can be more courageous about trying
new ideas and being entrepreneurial."
A 30-year-old billionaire
heir said:
"I think that my
generation wants to achieve a more holistic life and shed some
of the hypocrisies of previous generations. We want to have a
return but with impact.
Our investments
should reflect who we are and what we believe."
Not all of the vast
wealth held by elderly billionaires may be transferred to their
children, however, because many of the world's richest people have
signed up to
Giving Pledge to give at least half
of their wealth to charity.
More than 180 people have signed up to the scheme, since it was
launched by
Bill Gates, 62, the world's
second richest person with a $95bn fortune, and Warren Buffett,
88, the third richest with $84bn.
The world's richest person, Jeff Bezos, who has an estimated
net worth of $146bn, more than any one person in history, has not
signed up to the pledge. He created the Bezos Day One Fund
last month, a $2bn scheme to help address homelessness and improve
education for children in low-income families.
The richest person in the UK is Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the
founder and chief executive of the petrochemicals company
Ineos and a high-profile Brexiter,
who has an estimated fortune of £21bn.
Ratcliffe is preparing to
leave Britain for tax-free Monaco,
just months after he was knighted for services to business and
investment.
Ratcliffe has not signed up to the Giving Pledge. His biggest public
contribution has been a £25m donation to the
London Business School,
which renamed its main John Nash-designed building the Ratcliffe.
Guardian Graphic
Source: UBS/PwC Billionaires 2018.
Note: Greater China includes
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau
Most of the world's billionaires are in the US, but the number of
ultra-wealthy people is growing fast in China, where two new
billionaires are minted every week.
"Twelve years ago,
the world's most populous country was home to only 16
billionaires," the report said. "Today, as the ‘Chinese Century'
progresses, they number 373, nearly one in five of the global
total."
One Chinese billionaire
told the researchers:
"Nowhere else in the
world can you find better conditions for growth than in China.
The continued
progress of wealth creation is supported by government policies
liberating the economy, while urbanization and business model
disruption has crafted powerful new entrepreneurs."
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