Why Millionaires Are Shunning America

Forget the U.S. and U.K.—The Wealthy Are Moving Here Instead.

You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “Follow the money.” So today, that’s what we’re doing, but with a twist…

We’re following so-called high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) as they migrate around the world.

To set the stage, high net worth in this case means people with $1 million worth of investible assets. That’s a lot of dinero, no doubt, but it’s not crazy rich. We’re not talking centimillionaires and billionaires. We’re talking about fairly average people in the middle and upper middle classes.

Heck, stories pop up all the time about secretaries and postal workers and whatnot who’ve managed to squirrel away a million bucks just by dent of living within their means and investing wisely.

But back to the point… High-net-worth migration.

Where are these so-called HNWIs heading?

The big reveal: They’re increasingly not headed to America. And they’re increasingly fleeing the U.K.

That’s a huge—huge!—departure from historical norms.

Britain was always a money magnet because of its wealth, history, and role as a global financial center. But since the economic hara-kiri known as Brexit, Britain is now seeing a net exodus of wealth.

Uncle Sam is still seeing a net inflow, but compare to historical patterns, the flow is more like a slow drip.

Last year, America saw a net inflow of about 1,500 HNWI migrants. This net inflow captures all the people with $1 million or more who are moving into the country, minus all the HNWIs who left. And 1,500 represents a shocking decline.

In 2019, that number was 10,800. And over the last decade, the U.S. never saw less than 6,400 net wealth-migrants.

One could theoretically argue that the 2022 data still reflects the COVID shutdown of 2020, when migration globally fell to effectively zero. However, other countries saw a rapid ramp up in net migration in 2022, meaning that COVID is likely not an issue anymore.

What is the issue? Why are high-net-worth foreigners falling out of love with the U.S.?

Well, the answer seems to be social and economic factors.

I won’t dive into this too deeply, but certainly America’s off-the-charts crime and gun violence is playing a role.

Overseas, America is now also seen as a land of ridiculous political strife, where red and blue politicians continuously rile against each other and work to divide the nation.

There are laws emerging at the state level all across the country—in both red and blue states—that are seen globally as just totally bonkers.

There’s increasing worry that the U.S. is so deep in debt that it will take down the world economy.

Finally, there’s the U.S. government taking an extremely Luddite view of blockchain and crypto technology. That, in turn, is discouraging high-paid tech workers from choosing America.

Venture capital money—wealth—that would be flowing to America is now flowing into Singapore, large swaths of Europe, and the United Arab Emirates… all places where laws and the political climate are far friendlier to the crypto industry.

The thing about wealth—real wealth—is that it’s highly perceptive. When it senses the emergence of threats, it decamps for safer shores.

Which is why the U.S. and the U.K. are in decline.

There’s a lesson in this, of course.

Follow the money, as I noted at the outset.

Where high-net-worth dollars are landing tells you a lot about where opportunities for a better, safer life exist.

Portugal, where I happen to be relocating this summer, saw 1,300 net HNWI migrants last year. That’s nearly equal to America, even though Portugal’s population is only 3% of America’s. This figure is the highest ever for Portugal, and up from 400 a decade ago.

Greece, which reported just 100 HNWI migrants in 2015, collected 1,200 last year, again the highest number ever.

Singapore is up to 2,800 from 1,200 as recently as 2018.

The U.A.E., though located in a geopolitically sketchy neighborhood, saw a record 4,000 wealth migrants in 2022. Over the last decade, the number has fluctuated between 1,200 and 3,000.

Clearly, money is voting with its feet.

And those feet are increasingly walking away from historical safe havens like the U.S. and are instead looking for the new, safer havens.

The eagle-eyed among you will also notice a pattern in the places they’re choosing, particularly among the European countries.

Portugal and Greece both offer pathways to a second passport… which in turn is a European Union passport that gives you the right to live and work in any of the 27 EU member states, from Germany and Ireland to Sweden and Spain.

All of which dovetails nicely into the main message I’ve been writing about now for the last five years or so: Living and working overseas offers the opportunity for a safer, happier, more enjoyable, and less expensive life.

All you gotta do is follow the money.