U.S millionaire households hit 6.8 million

Households with $1 million or more in investible assets now number 6.8 million, up about 4% from the 6.5 million millionaire households last year, according to an annual study released today by Phoenix Marketing International. While the overall wealth market is growing, the study found that the ratio of millionaires to total U.S. households has remained relatively flat and that wealth is more concentrated and shifting geographically. At mid-2016, when the data were gathered, households with at least $1 million in investible assets held approximately $20 trillion in total liquid wealth, or approximately 59% of total liquid wealth in the U.S. Within this segment, the greatest asset growth was among households with between $1 million and $10 million in investible assets. Their investible assets grew by $809 billion, to a total of $17.8 trillion. In the broad affluent market — those with between $250,000 and $1 million in investible assets — 16.4 million households control $8.5 trillion in investible assets, or 35% of total liquid wealth. But this broad swath of the wealth market lost $56 billion collectively between 2015 and 2016. The vast majority of these losses ($54 billion) were among the lower mass affluent segment (households with $250,000 to $500,000 in assets). The 14 million near-affluent households in the U.S. — those with $100,000 to $250,000 in assets — saw a decline of $79 billion between 2015 and 2016, to $2.6 trillion. Currently, says Phoenix, the top 1% of wealthiest U.S. households now holds 24% of liquid wealth. Non-affluent households, representing 70% of U.S. households, control less than 10% of the nation's liquid wealth. It noted that the top 10 states ranked by the ratio of millionaire households to total households were: Maryland (7.55%), Connecticut (7.4%), New Jersey (7.39%), Hawaii (7.35%), Alaska (7.15%), Massachusetts (6.98%), New Hampshire (6.82%), Virginia (6.64%), the District of Columbia and Delaware (6.28%).