An IMGlobalWealth.com News Report
The largest intergenerational handover of private wealth in modern history is now under way, and accelerating. UBS, formerly known as the Union Bank of Switzerland and now the world’s largest wealth manager as well as a leading global private bank, reports that spouses and children of the ultra-rich inherited more in 2025 than in any year since it began tracking such transfers a decade ago. Its latest Billionaire Ambitions Report points to a structural transformation in how global capital is accumulated, transferred and ultimately redeployed.
In the 12 months to April, 91 individuals became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion. That figure represents a rise of more than one-third from the previous year and reflects what UBS describes as a “multi-year wealth transfer that is intensifying”.
“Switzerland remains a focal point. UBS estimates that $206 billion will be inherited there alone over the next 15 years”
The bank’s analysis, drawing on a survey of super-rich clients and a database tracking billionaire wealth across 47 markets – projects that at least $5.9 trillion will pass to billionaire heirs over the next 15 years.
Most of this movement is expected to originate in the United States, followed by India, France, Germany and Switzerland. Yet geography is increasingly fluid. Younger billionaires, in particular, are markedly more mobile than their predecessors, relocating across borders for lifestyle, geopolitical and tax reasons.
As a result, the traditional centres of wealth creation may not be the same regions that ultimately retain or benefit from this inheritance boom.
Switzerland remains a focal point. UBS estimates that $206 billion will be inherited there alone over the next decade and a half. Its recent referendum, in which voters decisively rejected a 50% tax on inherited fortunes above $62 million, appears to have reinforced the country’s appeal as a haven for wealthy families wary of fiscal shocks or political scrutiny.
“Inheritance, rather than entrepreneurial fortune-building, is fast becoming the dominant engine of billionaire wealth creation”
Preferred destinations for billionaire migration now include Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Singapore, all of which offer a mixture of stability, favourable taxation and lifestyle advantages.
As wealth becomes increasingly footloose, these jurisdictions are positioning themselves as magnets for capital, entrepreneurship and family-office investment.
The coming transfer of trillions raises a central question for policymakers: will the next generation of billionaires consolidate existing power structures, or disperse wealth across new frontiers?
For now, one trend is clear. Inheritance, rather than entrepreneurial fortune-building, is fast becoming the dominant engine of billionaire wealth creation, reshaping not only family legacies but the strategic map of global influence.
