Next Generation of Billionaires Collect More Wealth from Inheritance than Work, Says UBS

THE GUARDIAN: Swiss bank favoured by super-rich says 1,000 billionaires are likely to pass on $5.2tn to their children over next 20 years

Luxury yachts in Monaco. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters
Newly minted billionaires have collected more of their wealth from the deaths of relatives than through their own work and entrepreneurship, according to a Swiss bank favoured by the super-rich.

Of the 137 people who became billionaires in the 12 months to this April, 53 inherited a combined $150.8bn (£119bn) from their family, the report by UBS found. This exceeds the combined $140.7bn created by “84 new self-made” billionaires over the same period.

The bank said it was the first time in the nine-year history of its annual report on the fortunes of the richest 0.00004% of society that “the next generation of billionaires accumulated more wealth through inheritance than entrepreneurship”.

Benjamin Cavalli, the head of strategic clients at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “This is a theme we expect to see more of over the next 20 years, as more than 1,000 billionaires pass an estimated $5.2tn to their children.” » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Thursday, November 30, 2023

Number of Global Ultra High Net Worth Individuals Hits Record High

THE GUARDIAN: Credit Suisse finds those with assets exceeding $50m total 218,200 after post-pandemic ‘explosion of wealth’

The ranks of the global “ultra high net worth” (UHNW) individuals swelled by 46,000 last year to a record 218,200 as the world’s richest people benefited from “almost an explosion of wealth” during the recovery from the pandemic.

The number of UHNW people – those with assets of more than $50m (£43.7m) – jumped in 2021 as the super-rich benefited from soaring house prices and booming stock markets, according to a report by investment bank Credit Suisse. The number of people in the UHNW bracket has increased by more than 50% over the past two years.

The huge increase in wealth of the richest 0.00004% of the world’s adult population comes as billions of low- and middle-income people – many of whom saw their savings wiped out during the pandemic – struggle to cope with soaring food and energy prices.

“The strong rise in financial assets resulted in an increase in inequality in 2021,” the report by Credit Suisse, which helps manage the fortunes of many of the world’s richest people, said. “The rise in inequality is probably due to the surge in the value of financial assets during the Covid-19 pandemic.” » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Why wealth matters. The Global Wealth Report: The most comprehensive and up-to-date resource of its kind. Our Global Wealth Report analyzes the household wealth of 5.3 billion people across the globe. Multi-faceted and eye-opening. »

Rachel Reeves Promises Labour Will Close ‘Non-dom’ Tax Loophole

THE GUARDIAN: Shadow chancellor says it ‘isn’t right that those at the top benefit from outdated tax perks’

The Labour party has vowed to abolish the “non-dom” tax loophole used by the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s wife to save paying up to £20m in UK tax.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said it “simply isn’t right that those at the top can benefit from outdated non-dom tax perks” while ordinary people struggle with tax rises and the cost of living crisis.

Reeves on Monday said Labour was sending “a clear message” to the global super-rich: “If you make your home in Britain you should pay tax here – on all of your income.”

Labour’s pledge follows the revelation that Sunak’s billionaire heiress wife, Akshata Murty, had been registered as a non-domiciled person for nine years and was paying an annual levy in order to shelter her foreign income from HMRC.

The status meant she could legally avoid UK tax on annual dividends worth millions, which she collected from her family’s IT business empire. » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Monday, April 25, 2022

Senior Cabinet Office director Anand Aithal has non-dom status: Revelation is likely to lead to further questions about the criteria for holding the favourable tax status »

The Guardian View on the Super-rich: A Billion Reasons for a Wealth Tax

THE GUARDIAN: When America’s richest are paying proportionately less in tax than those struggling from paycheck to paycheck, the tax system demands a radical overhaul

This week, Jeff Bezos announced his plan to become the first billionaire in space. Next month, on the 52nd anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, he will fly about 100 km above the rest of us, see the curve of the Earth and experience a few minutes of weightlessness, before a final descent. As a metaphor for the relationship between the super-rich and everyone else, it does not come much better. What also takes some beating is the justification from the world’s richest person for living out the sci-fi dreams he had as a boy: he has so much money he doesn’t know how to spend it.

“The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel,” he said in 2018. “That is basically it.” To which the possible counter-suggestions might include: pay your workers more. Or perhaps: pay higher taxes. Because the other big bit of Bezos news this week is that in 2007 and 2011 the multi-billionaire did not pay a cent in US federal income tax. He was in good company: in 2018 Elon Musk of Tesla also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn and George Soros are also all recent members of the zero club. » | Editorial | Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Super-rich Call for Higher Taxes on Wealthy to Pay for Covid-19 Recovery

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Group of 83 wealthy individuals demands ‘immediate, substantial and permanent’ higher taxes ‘on people like us’

A group of 83 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to permanently increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

The super-rich members, including Ben and Jerry’s ice cream co-founder Jerry Greenfield and Disney heir Abigail Disney, called on “our governments to raise taxes on people like us. Immediately. Substantially. Permanently”.

“As Covid-19 strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world,” the millionaires said in a letter shared with the Guardian. “No, we are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not restocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door.

“But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world recovers from this crisis.” » | Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent | Monday, July 13, 2020

The Billionaire Class Is Not Fit to Rule – Paul Jay

The ruling elites are creating a world where the majority of people suffer the consequences of the climate crisis and massive unemployment while the super-rich use artificial intelligence to save themselves - a commentary by TRNN’s Senior Editor

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World's First Trillionaire Is Alive Today

THE INDEPENDENT: It’s pretty tough to understand exactly how ludicrously large a figure one trillion dollars is. ‘One with twelve zeroes’ doesn’t do it justice, but instead imagine this: even if you were profligate enough to spend a million dollars a day it would still take you 2,739 years to burn through a trillion dollars. It's that much money.

The owner of such a sum would be wealth enough to give out $140 to everyone on the planet, or – if the whim took them - buy the entirety of central London at today’s real estate prices, as The Times [£] has recently reported. » | James Vincent | Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Pope Francis Attacks Huge Salaries for the Rich While Poor Survive on 'Crumbs'

THE INDEPENDENT: Pontiff attacks excessive bonuses, greed-based economy

Pope Francis has made yet another controversial statement on corporate greed and income inequality in the first peace message of his pontificate.

The Holy Father criticised the "gap between those who have more" and those who "must content with the crumbs", as he called on world governments to do more to close the gap between the super rich and the poor.

Pope Francis, who was recently named TIME magazine's Person of the Year, attacked excessive salaries and exorbitant bonuses as a symptom of an economy based on greed.

"The grave financial and economic crises of the present time have pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy," the Pope said in a message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace[.]

"The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles," he added[.]

Titled Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway to Peace, the message attacked injustice, human trafficking and organised crime as obstacles to world peace.

The message will be delivered to world governments, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations. » | Maria Tadeo | Friday, December 13, 2013

Greece's Super-rich Maintain Lavish Lifestyles and Low Profiles
THE GUARDIAN: Since the outbreak of the Greek crisis, the country's moneyed class has been notable mainly by its absence

Scudding across the turquoise waters of the Argo-Saronic gulf, Ioannis Arnaoutis singled out the pearl-white sands of a little bay. The shore glistened in the midday sun. "It was especially imported from Asia by the owner of the mansion above the bay," said the boatman, one hand on the steering wheel of his water taxi, the other pointing in the direction of the cove. "It's a private beach, which is why there is only one umbrella on it."

Nearly three years into their country's worst crisis in modern times, life goes on as normal for Greece's super-rich. As the sun sets, oligarchs, shipowners, singers and media stars gather at the Poseidonion hotel on the island of Spetses opposite the little bay. They tuck into a menu that includes pasticcio laced with foie gras. Among them is a middle-aged man in a T-shirt proclaiming: "More is less".

Three days before Greeks cast their ballots in a make-or-break election, their country could not be more divided. Here there is no talk of the pain of crisis – the only topic of conversation elsewhere in Greek society. The destitution and despair of Athens is a world away – and for many quite clearly it is best kept that way.

"Greeks brought this crisis upon themselves," said a London-based shipowner upholding the sector's vow of silence by insisting on anonymity. "They allowed crooks and corruption to prosper." » | Helena Smith in Spetses | Wednesday, June 13, 2012