Reports show that individuals in Asia with more than $1million in investible assets dropped 4.8% between 2017 and 2018, which is the highest in any region. On the contrary, Asia entire wealth grew 92% in comparison to the global growth rate of 62%. HNWI in Hong Kong suffered mostly due to the sensitive equity market movements which constituted a 13% decline in wealth and 10% drop in their numbers.
On a global scale, HNWI with investable assets of more than $30 million, accounted for 75% of the overall wealth drop and the ultra HNWI made up less than 1% of the total population, constituted for about 34% of the wealth.
This is the first time in 7 years that the total wealth of these individuals has declined. In 2011 the combined net wealth of HNWI was $42 trillion, in 2017 the combined wealth reached $70.2 trillion and in 2018 according to reports, it dropped to $68.1 trillion.
The wealthiest individuals in the world are reacting to the global economic turmoil in a defensive manner by increasing their cash allocations appropriately. In early 2019, cash and equivalents accounted for the greatest share of portfolio allocations at 28%, beating equities at 25.7%. In early 2018, they accounted for 27.2% of HNWI’s asset allocations, while equities were at 30.9%