It’s never a bad time to be a billionaire. But the last ten years have been especially good, according to the tenth annual UBS Billionaire Ambitions report out today.
Based on responses from 2,682 billionaires, the report found that between 2015 and 2024, their collective wealth increased by 121% to $14 trillion. Over the same period the MSCI AC World Index, which tracks large and mid-cap growth across 23 developed markets, posted a gain of only 73 percent.
But it is not the billionaires’ wealth accumulation that is most notable. Rather, it’s what they intend to do with their money over the coming year that should grab investors’ attention, according to Jennifer Gabrielli, Head of UBS’s Ultra-High Net Worth solutions group, who oversaw the creation of the report.
“They’re in businesses and industries that they’ve run for, if not generations, certainly decades, where they feel like they have a specific edge,” says Gabrielli, who also runs UBS’s newly created unified global banking team. “And even after they dispose of those assets, when they go to investing, they still go to what they know best.”
There’s three main areas investors plan to invest over the coming 12 months, according to the report.
Real estate: By far, real estate is the asset class with the most interest from billionaires. While wealthy families are reportedly looking to sell their commercial real estate and public real estate investment trusts are raising 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 the Asia-Pacific and 10% in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.
Developed market bonds and equities: In addition to the 9% of respondents who said they’d significantly increase bond exposure in developed markets, 26% intended to slightly increase exposure while only 1% said they’d significantly decrease investments. 42% of respondents said they’d invest in developed market equities.
Gold and other precious metals: Coming in third place, 7% of respondents said they’d significantly increase their exposure to rare metals, which are typically seen as hedges during times of instability. Thirty-three percent said they’d slightly increase their exposure.
“This could reflect fears of heightened geopolitical risk and equity market valuations,” according to the report. Interestingly, while nearly as many billionaires plan to increase their exposure to direct private equity holdings (38%)—which have been a darling of investors lately—twenty percent plan to decrease their exposure.
It’s important to note that as billionaires continue to beat the market, the wealth they pass onto their heirs will likely also increase. While multigenerational billionaires inherited $1.3 trillion over the past decade, according to the report, they’re expected to inherit $6.3 trillion over the next 15 years. “That’s higher than forecast in 2023,” according to the report, “because more billionaires have reached the age of 70 and asset values have increased.”
