How the Wealthy Feel About Their Wealth

U.S. Trust took a survey of high to ultra-high net worth Americans to capture their views on wealth. A few of the main findings are listed below:

• Most wealthy people earned wealth through their own work.
• Only 27% inherited their wealth.
• Almost all of the respondents are wealthier than their parents, but about 1/2 of respondents do not expect that their children will be as wealthy (partially because they do not believe their children can handle the inherited wealth and partially because they are not getting advice on how to handle that wealth effectively).
• Six of ten consider themselves wealthy, but most do not consider wealth a measure of their value.
• There is a gap between the financial security the wealthy want to provide for their family and what they are actually including in their estate plans.
• The wealthy are not talking to advisers about preserving wealth as inter-generational family wealth.
• The wealthy are uncertain about taxes. 

To see more in depth highlights from the survey, you may visit this website: http://www.ustrust.com/publish/ust_072210/USTSurvey/pdfs/Deck-Full.pdf.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.