An historic wave of inheritances expected among billionaires, UBS says

The UBS Group AG headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Photographer: Pascal Mora/Bloomberg

A huge wave of inheritances is about to hit among the world’s billionaires, with some US$5.9 trillion expected to be passed on to fortunate children in the next 15 years, according to a study by Swiss bank UBS.

In 2025, 91 heirs inherited a record $297.8 billion, up 36 percent from 2024, despite fewer inheritors.

“Demographic trends based on the age of the billionaire population suggest that the number of inheritors will continue to rise,” the report said.

The largest group of inheritors in 2025 were in Western Europe, where 48 people inherited a total of $149.5 billion, boosted by 15 members of two German pharmaceutical families, the youngest being 19 and the oldest 94.

That was more than the 18 inheriting $86.5 billion in North America and the 11 in South East Asia who received $24.7 billion.

But over the next 15 years, the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth will be in the United States, where one-third of the world’s billionaires now live. About half of the world’s wealth expected to be transferred by billionaires by 2040 will be in the United States, either directly to children or via their surviving spouses.

In Europe, some $1.3 trillion is expected to be passed on to the next generation over the next 15 years, led by France, Germany and Switzerland.

Some $382 billion will be transferred in India but “only” $316 billion in China, largely because Chinese billionaires tend to be younger than their counterparts elsewhere.

The bank’s calculations are based on the number of billionaires in the world aged over 70, taking as a reference the average life expectancy in Switzerland which is 85 years. But it warned that its forecasts are conservative because they don’t take into account any potential appreciation of assets.

UBS, one of the world’s largest wealth managers, said there were 196 new self-made billionaires in 2025, 87 of them in the U.S., largely in sectors including software, genetics, energy and infrastructure.