The rich are getting richer on good advice

THE number of high-net-worth individuals in Australia increased by more than a third last year to almost 175,000 individuals according to this year’s Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report, which tracks the fortunes of the world’s richest investors. It says the combined wealth of Australia’s high-net-worth individuals increased by almost 37% per cent during the year.

Interestingly what these individuals did to gain their wealth wasn’t especially sophisticated, nor was it based on access to services and information unavailable to the rest of us.

However a common characteristic of high-net-worth individuals seems to be that they were prepared to seek, and pay for, good quality advice.

And while they might have tested the advice they received against other valued sources – the internet and family and friends among them – they were prepared to trust the advice they received and act on it early and decisively.

This propensity to make decisions early and follow them through has been identified in previous World Wealth Reports according to the Australian.

I have always said that if you’re the smartest person in your team you’re in trouble, so get a  good team of advisors around you.