How Asia's Rich Spend Their Money -- Barron's Asia

By Abby Schultz

The ranks of Asia's wealthy -- as well as the region's wealth -- continued to grow at a faster pace than the rest of the world last year, the latest data from RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini reveal.

Their annual snapshot of high-net-worth individuals -- those with investable assets of US$1 million or more -- offers insights on how many wealthy there are, how much they have and how they invest and spend all that money.

First the headlines:

-- The number of Asia-Pacific wealthy rose 17.3% to 4.3 million in 2013 compared with a 13.5% gain in the number of wealthy in the rest of the world.

-- The amount of Asia-Pacific wealth grew at an even faster 18.2% rate to US$14.2 trillion in assets compared with a growth rate of 12.3% in the rest of the world.

As for why this happened, a 56.7% rise in the Nikkei in 2013 didn't hurt. Japan's wealthy population spiked 22.3% to 2.3 million in 2013 after rising only 4.4% the year before. Otherwise, the region continued to benefit from rapid growth throughout the region.

In the five-years since the financial crisis of 2008, Asia-Pacific's economies have experienced a compound annual growth rate of 5.7% compared with only 2.8% globally. The growth is led by the emerging economies of China, India, Indonesia and Thailand, RBC and Capgemini say.

In the global horse race for wealth, North America remains slightly ahead with 4.33 million high-net- worth individuals and total assets of US$14.88 trillion. The report authors expect Asia-Pacific to overtake North America with more wealthy individuals by the end of the year.

Here are some more fun facts:

-- The "ultra-wealthy" -- those with more than US$30 million in investable assets -- are 0.7% of the region's wealthy, but they have 26% of the wealth. This segment of Asia's rich grew faster than other high-net-worth individuals in Asia last year and faster the ultra-wealthy population in the rest of the world.

-- Wealthy investors in Asia-Pacific ex-Japan grew their wealth by boosting overseas investments to 43.4% in 2014 from 30.2% a year earlier.

-- They also invested more in real estate than wealthy investors in the rest of the world, although their allocation to property dropped to 23% of assets from a 24.6% share a year earlier.

-- Singapore's wealthy had the biggest equity allocation at 23.1%, while the wealthy in China were second with a 22.7% allocation.

-- 93.2% of China's rich trust their personal ability to generate wealth, while only 51.5% of Japanese do.

-- Food security tops the list of social concerns that attract money, time and expertise from Asia-Pacific ex-Japan's wealthy, a region that places a higher importance than the rest of the world on "generating positive social impact."

-- India's wealthy put 40.3% of their "investments of passion," as RBC and Capgemini call it, into jewelry, gems and watches while China's wealthy put 32.7% in this category.

Email: [e-mail]

Comments? E-mail us at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires