How We Decide Who’s Really Rich Now
Using J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s 2024 Global Family Office Report, opulent families run their “businesses” with razor-sharp discipline: roughly 45% of their portfolios are in alternative assets (private equity, venture capital, real estate), and they favor a “barbell” strategy blending stable, semi-liquid investments with high-return, long‑horizon trades. But structural wealth isn’t the only edge.
Around 40% of family offices cite cybersecurity as a major gap, and a quarter acknowledge real exposure to breaches or fraud — meaning safeguarding their legacy means hiring not just wealth advisers, but cyber risk experts.
The new elite is insulating itself from economic shocks, succession challenges, and digital threats. Wealth today isn’t about what you own; it’s how well you protect, plan, and pivot.
Quiet Luxury
Ben Carlson, portfolio manager and author of A Wealth of Common Sense, has repeatedly emphasized that wealthy investors tend to prefer boring, simple, compounding assets over ego-driven purchases. In an interview on The White Coat Investor podcast, he said that successful clients routinely “automate the boring stuff,” stay diversified, and avoid chasing status-driven complexity.
This mindset naturally aligns with lower-visibility lifestyles: more capital goes into portfolios, less into display items. McKinsey’s 2023 luxury report found that logo-heavy luxury goods grew only 4%, while quiet-luxury fashion houses like Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli grew double that.
Time Abundance
A well-cited 2017 PNAS study by Ashley Whillans found that across income groups, people who spent money on time-saving services reported significantly higher life satisfaction. Among households earning over $200,000, those who didn’t outsource time spent on chores scored lower on well-being metrics than those who did.
Time freedom is the modern replacement for excess. The richest households today outsource 100–150 hours of domestic labor per month through cleaners, drivers, chefs, and assistants. The asset they’re buying is psychological relief.
Freedom Money
Major wealth reports find that an expanding cohort of UHNW clients use family-office structures and concierge teams to purchase privacy, security, and time, often preferring private investments and bespoke services over highly visible consumption.
This level of liquidity means one’s identity isn’t controlled by a paycheck, a supervisor, or a corporate structure. It’s wealth measured in reversibility.
Smarter Living and Proximity
Redfin reports that 46.5% of luxury home purchases were made in cash in Q4 2023, suggesting affluent buyers are leveraging liquidity and avoiding mortgage risk. Additionally, homes in “high-opportunity” neighborhoods—areas with better schools and mobility potential—sell for 38% more on average than comparable homes in lower-opportunity ZIPs.
Truly affluent people prioritize premium ZIP codes, architectural quality, and proximity to economic hubs, not square footage.
Access to Investments You Can’t Google
The modern wealthy make money in markets most people can’t enter.
These include:
- Private equity (minimums often $250k–$5M)
- Venture capital funds
- Private credit
- Fine art (via platforms like Masterworks)
- Complex dynasty or GRAT trusts
Health as the Ultimate Rich-Person Moat
True health security increasingly depends on participating in value-based care systems, where preventive medicine and coordinated treatment improve long-term outcomes. Wealth enables access to top-tier practices and the flexibility to select providers who prioritize quality and personalized care.
According to the AMA, physicians in ACOs and patient-centered medical homes focus on early intervention, chronic disease management, and patient outcomes, which can amplify longevity and wellness.
While traditional concierge medicine remains an option for the ultra-wealthy, broader participation in these innovative care models shows how wealth interacts with system-level healthcare advantages.
Geographic Arbitrage
IRS migration data shows that the top-earning Americans are moving to lower-tax states at the fastest pace in 40 years. Global entrepreneurs are moving to southern Europe, Southeast Asia, or the UAE, where the cost of living is low, but status and comfort remain high.
Portability is a form of financial sovereignty. A salary that feels average in New York becomes affluent in Lisbon or Dubai.
Education as an Intergenerational Barricade
The Brookings Institution found that graduates from the top 80 U.S. private high schools dominate admission into Ivy League institutions at a rate over 100× the national average. Wealthy families spend $50k–$200k per child on tutoring, test prep, and admissions consulting.
Education becomes a firewall protecting generational mobility. It is the most powerful inheritance that is not taxed.
Purchased Privacy
This includes:
- LLCs shielding real-estate ownership
- Reputation managers
- Digital security teams
- Private travel routes
- Non-disclosure agreements for staff
In Q4 2024, Kroll observed that valid account takeover (i.e., using compromised credentials) accounted for 27% of initial access attempts, and social engineering (e.g., AI‑driven voice cloning) made up another 13%. Further, Kroll’s 2025 cyber threat landscape report highlights a sharp rise in crypto‑asset theft, including malware specifically targeting high-net-worth crypto holders.
All of which suggests that protecting one’s digital footprint, not just one’s public profile, is becoming a non-negotiable part of modern wealth preservation.
A Built-In Personal Team
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals often outsource time-consuming tasks to gain flexibility and focus on their top priorities. Harvard Business School research on “time affluence” shows that wealthy households frequently invest in strategies to buy time, not just status, by hiring staff or using services to handle routine responsibilities. This creates a “personal efficiency network,” allowing them to spend more hours on strategic decisions, family, wellness, or investments.
Social Capital and Gate-Kept Access
Money opens doors, but relationships open worlds.
Exclusive clubs, closed investor groups, private conferences, and referral-only memberships serve as the real economy of the elite.
Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls this symbolic capital—the ability to enter rooms where power circulates informally.
Key Takeaways:
Autonomy: Wealth is defined by control over your time, your labor, and your relationships.
Insulation: Structures, assets, and strategies that protect you from volatility.
Optionality: The power to say no—to jobs, places, people, and constraints.
Discretion: Real wealth is invisible to anyone who doesn’t know where to look.
Disclosure line: This article was developed with the assistance of AI and was subsequently reviewed, revised, and approved by our editorial team.
Why investing for retirement is so important for women (and how to do it)
Why investing for retirement is so important for women (and how to do it)
Retirement planning can be challenging, especially for women who face unique obstacles such as the wage gap, caregiving responsibilities, and a longer life expectancy. It’s essential for women to educate themselves on financial literacy and overcome the investing gap to achieve a comfortable and secure retirement. So, let’s talk about why investing for retirement is important for women and how to start on this journey towards financial freedom.
