Global personal wealth grew 10.8% in 2025, the strongest year since 2017, and nearly one million new millionaires were created—more than 2,600 every day—according to a new white paper from REALM, an invitation-only global network of luxury real estate advisors. The paper, titled Minted: Who the New Wealthy Are, and What They Expect, was written by REALM Founder and Chief Executive Officer Julie Faupel and released in October 2026.
Minted argues that this surge is not simply more wealth but different wealth: younger, faster, more liquid, more mobile and more skeptical of inherited relationships. The luxury real estate industry was built to win clients through brand, volume and visibility, but the newly minted choose their advisors through introduction, discretion and authority. That mismatch, the paper says, is the defining problem of this moment.
Drawing on REALM’s membership intelligence and global wealth research, Minted identifies six findings. The minting is structural, not cyclical, as entrepreneurial creation and the largest intergenerational transfer in history arrive at once. New wealth arrives as a liquidity event, and the first major real estate decision often follows within months. The new wealthy do not relocate; they assemble residences, citizenships and properties into a portfolio designed for optionality. Loyalty is no longer inherited: 81% of next-generation inheritors plan to leave their parents’ wealth firms, and only 17% of high-net-worth individuals describe their advisory experience as seamless and personalized. Permission, not price, now governs the purchase: 52% of affluent buyers are buying fewer luxury items but expecting more from each, and 47% weigh future regret before committing. Their objection is rarely “I can’t afford it.” It is “I’m not sure I should.”
For advisors, the implications are stark. The new wealthy choose people, not brands, and they choose early. Most real estate advisors arrive after the decision has already been shaped by the wealth manager, attorney and family office who meet new wealth first. Minted maps the four gates every prospective advisor must pass—introduction, verification, discretion and intelligence—and sets out nine practices that define the advisor this generation requires, a figure REALM calls the Trusted: present before the liquidity event, fluent across borders and generations, and leading with intelligence rather than inventory.
“Wealth has always been made. What has changed is the speed, and the shape of the people making it,” said Julie Faupel. “The brand does not win this client. The advisor does. Trust is the currency, and it is earned one relationship at a time.” REALM members who contributed to the paper describe the same pattern. “When wealth is created quickly, someone’s life can change faster than their trusted circle can form,” said Bridget Ramey, a luxury real estate advisor in Austin. “They often have the capital before they have the counsel.” Jack Cotton, a luxury real estate advisor on Cape Cod, added: “You don’t find these clients by becoming more visible. You find them by becoming more referable.”
The paper is the opening chapter of a larger effort. On May 17–19, 2027, the REALM Global Collective 2027 will convene 250 invitation-only participants at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin: 200 senior advisors and 50 ultra-high-net-worth capital gatekeepers. Working councils will produce positions on the first 90 days after a liquidity event, covering the heir, cross-border counsel, stewardship and the role of AI, among others. Those positions will shape REALM’s definitive guide to luxury advisory, to be published with Greentree Publishing following the Collective and renewed annually.
“This paper defines the client,” said Faupel. “The work that follows will define the standard.” Minted is available now at Minted – REALM Guide.
