INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
ZURICH: The pool of money held by the world's wealthiest people grew by 12 per cent last year to nearly $202 trillion as bull markets and
the dollar's weakening against most major currencies boosted global fortunes, an international advisory firm's study released on Thursday
said.
Adjusted for exchange rate swings, wealth rose 7 per cent, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey found.
While residents of North
America held the greatest share of personal wealth at almost 43 per cent, the fastest growth came in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East
Most super-rich individuals lived in the United States, China and Japan.
The business of providing advice to those super-rich is still
strong in North America.
However, legacy retail brokerages such as Morgan Stanley , Bank of America Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, UBS AG
Group's Wealth Management in the Americas and Wells Fargo Advisors lost market share as less wealthy clients went elsewhere.
Legacy
brokerages' market share fell to 37 per cent in 2016 from 41 per cent in 2012, while the portion held by direct channel firms such as
Charles Schwab and Fidelity grew modestly to 21 per cent from 20 per cent.
More than 35 million Americans now have between $250,000 and $1
million, a wealth bracket the industry calls mass affluent
BCG senior partner Brent Beardsley said that many mass affluent savers hold a lot of their money in a retirement account, like a 401(k),
which oftentimes are managed by a company like Schwab or Fidelity.
"(They have) a natural structural advantage" over legacy brokerages,
Beardsley said.
BCG's annual study also showed Switzerland remained the world's biggest centre for managing offshore wealth with $2.3
trillion, followed by Hong Kong with $1.1 trillion and Singapore with $0.9 trillion.
The two Asian centres have grown at yearly rates of 11
and 10 per cent respectively over the past five years, more than three times the 3 per cent rate Switzerland has posted.
It is in the
fast-growing markets that large wealth managers including Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are casting wider nets.
The Swiss banking
secrecy from which they long profited has been weakened, meaning rich people from around the world can no longer easily use the Alpine
Republic to stash wealth away from tax authorities at home.
The changes have put Switzerland in fierce competition with faster-growing
centres like Hong Kong and Singapore.
