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World wealth down 11%, fewer millionaires in 2009
HTML clipboard NEWYORK:2008 global recession caused the first worldwide contraction in assets under management in nearly a decade, according to a study that found wealth dropped 11.7 percent to $92.4 trillion. A return to 2007 levels of wealth will take six years, according to a Boston Consulting Group study that examined assets overseen by the asset management industry. North America, particularly the United States, was the hardest hit region, reporting a 21.8 percent decline in wealth firms' assets under management to $29.3 trillion, primarily because of the beating U.S. equities investments took in 2008. Also hit hard were off-shore wealth centers, like Switzerland and the Caribbean, where assets declined to $6.7 trillion in 2008 from $7.3 trillion in 2007, an 8 percent drop. The downturn has "shattered confidence in a way we have not seen in a long time," said Bruce Holley, senior partner and managing director at BCG's New York office. The study forecasts that wealth management firms' assets under management will not return to 2007 levels, $108.5 trillion, until 2013, a six-year rebound.
