It’s never a bad time to be a billionaire. But the last ten years have been particularly good, according to UBS’s tenth annual report on billionaire ambitions, released today.
Based on responses from 2,682 billionaires, the report found that between 2015 and 2024, their combined wealth grew by 121% to $14 trillion. In the same period, the MSCI AC World Index, which tracks the growth of large and medium-sized companies in 23 developed markets, recorded a growth of only 73 percent.
But it is not the most prominent accumulation of wealth by billionaires. Instead, investors should focus on what they intend to do with their money in the coming year, according to Jennifer Gabriella, head of UBS’s ultra-high net worth solutions group, who oversaw the report.
“They’re in businesses and industries that they’ve been running for, if not generations, certainly decades, where they feel like they have a distinct advantage,” says Gabrielli, who also heads UBS’s newly created unified global banking team. “Even after they get rid of those assets, when they start investing, they still go to what they do best.”
There are three main areas where investors plan to invest in the next 12 months, according to the report.
Real estate: By far, real estate is the asset class that billionaires are most interested in. While wealthy families allegedly they want to sell their commercial real estate and public real estate investment trusts lifting eyebrows, the report shows that 19% of respondents plan to “significantly” increase their exposure, with 33% of billionaires investing in real estate in the Americas, 27% in Asia Pacific and 10% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A developed bond and stock market: Along with 9% of respondents who said they would significantly increase their exposure to bonds in developed markets, 26% intend to slightly increase their exposure while only 1% said they would significantly reduce their investments. 42% of respondents said they would invest in developed market stocks.
Gold and other precious metals: Coming in third, 7% of respondents said they would significantly increase their exposure to rare metals, which are typically considered a hedge during volatile periods. Thirty-three percent said they would slightly increase their exposure.
“This could reflect fears of increased geopolitical risk and equity market valuations,” the report said. Interestingly, while nearly as many billionaires plan to increase their exposure to direct private equity holdings (38%)—a ​​recent investor favorite—20 percent plan to reduce their exposure.
It’s important to note that as billionaires continue to beat the market, the wealth they pass on to their heirs will also grow. While multigenerational billionaires inherited $1.3 trillion in the past decade, they are expected to inherit $6.3 trillion over the next 15 years, according to the report. “That’s higher than predicted for 2023,” the report said, “as more billionaires turned 70 and asset values ​​increased.”
