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[Monksdream]

The great generational wealth transfer is upon us. In a first for the world of superyachts and Picasso auctions, new billionaires now inherit more money than they make.

According to a UBS report on some of the Swiss bank’s wealthiest clients, 53 heirs inherited $150.8 billion from deceased relatives in the year leading up to April 2023, eclipsing the $140.7 billion brought in by 84 new self-made billionaires over the same period.

That marks the first time that billionaires have gotten richer from generational wealth than from entrepreneurship in the nine years since UBS started surveying its fattest cats—who account for half of the world’s billionaires.

Why? High interest rates, a chilled IPO market, and geopolitical challenges are making wealth creation harder, per UBS. At the same time, deep-pocketed families running consumer-centric companies—like LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and his clan—have benefited from shoppers’ post-pandemic, treat-yourself mentalities.

Looking ahead…as more than 1,000 billionaires die in the next 20–30 years, UBS projects that their children will inherit $5.2 trillion. But they’ll likely spend some of that dough differently than their mommies and daddies. The youngest members of the 0.00004% worry more about long-term risk, so they’re into impact investing rather than conventional philanthropy.—ML