How the rich are different – and becoming more so

Comment: How the rich are different – and becoming more so


It falls to Nick Carraway in F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby to observe: "The rich are different from you and me." To which the sensible reply must surely be: "Yes, they have more money."

By Ian Cowie
Published: 11:55AM BST 02 Jul 2009

Another, more topical, difference is that there are far fewer of them than there were a year ago. Given the scale of the credit crisis, perhaps that is one of the less surprising conclusions of the 2009 World Wealth Report issued last week by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

But what caught my eye was the marked change in the geographical location of these lucky plutocrats. Far fewer of them are British. For the first time, the number of millionaires in China has overtaken those in Britain.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, an arm of America's biggest stockbroker, and Capgemini, the global consulting services firm, disdain to use such a vulgar word as "rich". Instead, they prefer to count "high net worth individuals", by which they mean people with more than $1m (£615,000) of "investable assets" – that is, excluding the value of their home.

Whatever you call them, there were 491,000 of these millionaires in Britain the last time Merrill counted them but only 362,000 this year. China also felt the credit crunch – but less so – with its headcount of millionaires falling from 413,000 to 364,000.

It would be wrong to make too much of such a marginal difference, although it does dislodge Britain from its long established place as the fourth richest country in the world on the Merrill Lynch measure. America, Japan and Germany still account for 54pc of all millionaires but how long will it be before China overtakes those in third and second positions?

This largely overlooked report may remind unit and investment trust investors who are keen to gain exposure to economies that are growing rather than shrinking that the sun sets in the west but rises in the east.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/comment/iancowie/5682336/Comment-How-the-rich-are-different---and-becoming-more-so.html