LUXONOMY CONFIDENTIAL™ — The Great Wealth Transfer: how US$83 trillion will change luxury
The Great Wealth Transfer is not simply an inheritance event. It is a change in who defines value. UBS estimates that more than US$83 trillion will move between and within generations over the next two to three decades. The successors will not only rebalance portfolios; they will influence which brands, advisers, destinations, institutions and forms of ownership remain relevant.
This report converts the transfer into an operating agenda for luxury companies and family offices. It examines the gap between asset succession and relationship succession, why heirs frequently change advisers and brands, how women will shape the horizontal transfer, and which categories are best positioned to turn inheritance into durable engagement.
INDEX
- The executive thesis: inheritance transfers authority
- The US$83 trillion anatomy
- Horizontal before vertical: the overlooked transfer to spouses
- Why heirs leave incumbent advisers and brands
- The preparation gap inside family offices
- From ownership to stewardship
- Women become a decisive centre of luxury demand
- Gen X, millennials and different definitions of value
- Property, art, jewellery and watches: assets with emotional friction
- Private banking and luxury compete for the same trust
- Purpose, philanthropy and entrepreneurial capital
- LUXONOMY Intergenerational Relevance Score™
- Three succession scenarios
- What brands should do now
- What family offices should do now
The headline number is extraordinary, but the structure matters more. UBS estimates that roughly US$74 trillion will transfer vertically to the next generation and about US$9 trillion horizontally, often between spouses, within 20–25 years. The United States represents the largest volume by far, while Brazil and mainland China also account for major expected transfers.
The transition arrives when global wealth is expanding and concentrating. UBS recorded 10.8% growth in personal wealth during 2025 and nearly one million new dollar millionaires. At the same time, family-office governance has not kept pace: only 35% of respondents in the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026 had a defined succession plan for the office itself, and only 27% had a structured process to educate heirs.
That gap creates one of the largest relationship contests in modern business. Every inherited portfolio, collection, residence and company becomes a moment when the new owner can confirm the incumbent relationship—or replace it.
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