A wave of boomer wealth rains down on a new class of billionaires
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It's been a record year for inheritances: 91 people across the globe became billionaires, coming into a combined $298 billion in wealth this year — the most since UBS began tracking in 1995, according to a new report from the bank.
Why it matters: We're in the middle of what is expected to be the largest transfer of wealth the world has seen, as baby boomers die and pass down their money, houses and assets to their spouses and children.
- Billionaires are likely to transfer $6.9 trillion in wealth globally by 2040, per UBS's estimate, which may be conservative, it says. At least $5.9 trillion will go to their kids.
- Heirs will likely come into the most in the U.S. — where nearly a third of all billionaires live.
The big picture: The overall number of billionaires hit a new high of 2,919 this year — with collective wealth of $15.8 trillion, per UBS.
By the numbers: This year, 27 women and 64 men inherited their way to billionaire status, defined as someone whose assets reached $1 billion or more for the first time.
- The amount of wealth they inherited hit a new high — even as the number of people inheriting their way to billionaire status fell from 107 last year.
- Newly minted women billionaires included Marilyn Simons, widow of U.S. hedge fund manager Jim Simons.
- UBS tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets around the globe.
The intrigue: A good number of these new "billion-heirs" are women — though men still make up the overwhelming majority of the ultra-wealthy.
- The average wealth of women billionaires, both inherited and self-made, grew 8.4% this year, twice as fast as that of men.
- "This used to be something that many people said was male dominated—it's not anymore," Maximilian Kunkel, UBS's chief investment officer for global and family institutional wealth, tells Axios.
Friction point: Unlike other forms of income, money that comes via inheritance means the wealthy pay very little tax on their gains.
- There's been a drastic pullback in taxes on inherited wealth in the U.S.
- Last month, voters in Switzerland overwhelming rejected a 50% tax on inheritances of $62 million and up.
The bottom line: The rich are getting, and will soon become, a lot richer.
