Bulk of wealth growth to come from 'new wealth builders', says report

Wealth growth in Asia is not all about the "high-net-worth" folk, who hold more than US$2 million in assets. In fact, according to a new report from Citibank and the Economist Intelligence Unit, the bulk of wealth generation the world over is taking place one echelon lower in what they dub the "new wealth builders", or NWBs, who have between US$100,000 and US$2 million in financial assets.

The amount of wealth this segment of the market is expected to generate over the next five years is substantial, if not unprecedented.

The NWBs could grow their assets to US$147 trillion from about US$88 trillion today, 7.3 per cent compound annual growth in the 10 years to 2020.

By comparison, households with net worth above US$2 million will hold a total of about US$72 trillion in five years, up from US$43 trillion this year.

Mass market households, worth less than US$100,000, were set to shrink over the same period by 0.8 per cent. Total assets in that segment of the market would grow by just 2.5 per cent each year between 2010 and 2020 to US$24.8 trillion.

In Asia, China and India were set to drive much of that growth among NWBs.