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Excerpt from the World Wealth Report 2009.
PDF - 647 KB
The diverging macroeconomic environments at either end of 2007 helped define HNWIs’ asset allocation strategies. Building on the optimism of 2006, the early months of 2007 showed HNWIs betting heavily on less conservative asset classes. But as the year wore on, and financial market turmoil and economic uncertainty intensified, HNWIs began to retrench, shifting their investments to more conservative, less volatile asset classes.
The Report found that Cash/Deposits and Fixed Income Securities accounted for 44 percent of HNWI financial assets, up 9 percentage points from 2006. Fixed Income Securities saw a 6 percentage point increase in asset allocation, accounting for 27 percent of holdings, up from 21 percent in 2006.
Globally, HNWIs continued to decrease their holdings in North America and showed greater interest in domestic market investments, preferring more familiar grounds amid heightened levels of economic uncertainty.
