Moving On Up

A number of your clients were busy in 2006, swiftly climbing the ladder of success. According to a new report from Spectrem Group–”Affluent Market Insights 2007″–the number of U.S. households with a net worth of $5 million or more, not including a primary residence (NIPR), rose to a record 1.14 million in 2006, surpassing one million for the first time. This represents a 23% increase from the 930,000 Spectrem reported in 2005, and a quadrupling from 250,000 ultra high-net-worth households in 1996.

Although ultra HNW households saw the strongest growth of all affluent segments in 2006, the report found that millionaire households (those with a net worth of $1 million or more) grew to 9 million in 2006, an 8% increase from 8.3 million the year before. Furthermore, affluent households (net worth of $500,000 or more) reached 15.3 million last year–an increase of 9% from 14 million in 2005.