About the World Wealth Report
Collaborating to Understand the World’s Wealth
For over 20 years, Capgemini and Merrill Lynch have collaborated to identify and objectively analyze the investment needs of the world’s High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs)—defined as people with more than US $1 million in net financial wealth, excluding primary residence. Published since 1997, the World Wealth Report (WWR) is widely read by top executives in the banking, securities and insurance industries as well as those in the luxury goods markets. It is viewed as the global benchmark in terms of numbers and wealth of HNWIs and is sourced in hundreds of media reports throughout the year. No other report provides as comprehensive a view of global HNWIs: their size, behaviors and implications for the financial services industry. The WWR is updated annually and uses a proprietary Lorenz curve methodology.
It is supported by both primary and secondary research as well as hands-on market experience. In creating the WWR, our partnership with Merrill Lynch has given Capgemini exclusive insight into the knowledge, expertise and resources of one of the world’s largest wealth management providers.
Reporting on World Wealth
The report has built a strong and lasting reputation as the industry benchmark for HNWIs market sizing — originally at a global and regional level but increasingly at a country level. The report includes three sections covering:
- HNWI market sizing and review of global economic drivers impacting HNWI behaviors
- Investing behaviors and asset allocation trends of HNWIs
- Key industry issues facing financial services institutions, financial advisors and HNWIs alike.
In 2007, the financial wealth of HNWIs worldwide has moved from US $37.2 trillion in 2006 to US $40.7 trillion in 2007, a growth rate of 9.4%. For the same period, we witnessed total number of HNWIs increase from 9.5 million individuals in 2006 to 10.1 million in 2007, an increase of 6.0. We also found the very richest individuals — the Ultra-HNWIs (those with more than US $30 million in financial assets) — continued to grow in 2007, increasing by 8.8% to 103,300.
The model currently covers 69 countries accounting for over 98% of global Gross National Income and 99% of world stock market capitalization. We continuously work to update the model with additional country-specific analysis as reliable data becomes available.
Over the years, the WWR has covered a variety of research topics in its featured spotlight section including:
- 1997 - Changing HNWI behaviors and fee structures
- 1998 - Onshore vs. offshore capital flows and destinations
- 1999 - Evaluating change and technological innovation
- 2000 - Focus on the Ultra-HNWI sub-segment
- 2001 - Size, growth, nature and types of specialized investments
- 2002 - Comparison of European and North American High Net Worth operating models
- 2003 - Impact of new market realities on providers
- 2004 - The rise of institutional-like client behavior and the implications for wealth management providers
- 2005 - The evolving needs of the mid-tier millionaires and emergence of the Virtual Service Network (VSN)
- 2006 - Globalization and upcoming generational transfer of wealth
- 2007 – Exploring Needs-Based Service Models to better meet increasingly complex HNW client needs
The report also demonstrates an outstanding record for monitoring the HNWI population and predicting trends (see chart below).
The World Wealth Report Scorecard
The World Wealth Report — Beyond the Headlines
Not only is the WWR used as a global benchmark with the media, our clients use the information in a number of ways to drive alignment in the organization on their path forward in Wealth Management. Capgemini leverages our research findings to go “beyond the headlines” with our clients and drill down into the implication of the research as it applies directly to their businesses. We do this with a variety of services:
On-Site WWR Briefings
Customizing the findings from the WWR to the client situation to develop a 1
to 2 hour presentation that discusses the findings in-depth, and highlight implications
and key questions for the client to consider.
On-Site WWR Workshops
Conducting a limited number of focus interviews with clients to understand key
priorities and issues we benchmark findings against WWR data analysis to summarize
and incorporate the output into a WWR presentation. An agreed number of discussions
or break-out sessions are then facilitated by our Capgemini Wealth Management
subject matter experts to discuss issues and solutions with client executives.
WWR “Beyond the Headlines” ASE Sessions
Leveraging Capgemini’s unique Accelerated Solutions Environment, Capgemini subject matter experts and ASE facilitators work with the client
to design a 1 to 3 day strategic planning session to address in detail client
responses to industry challenges and develop their road map for the way forward.
Our clients tell us they derive the most value out of the report from these sessions.
