DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

The movement of the world’s richest families across borders is accelerating into what experts are calling the most significant private wealth migration ever recorded. Demand for cross-border relocation, residency planning and citizenship consultancy services is being driven by geopolitical tensions and sudden policy shifts, advisers who work with ultra-high-net-worth clients told CNBC.

According to a report by Swiss multinational investment bank UBS, 36% of its 87 billionaire clients surveyed had already relocated at least once in 2025, while another 9% were considering doing so. Among billionaires aged 54 and below, 44% moved last year. Families increasingly recognize that policy regimes can change rapidly. Farro & Co. Deepesh Agarwal “We are truly experiencing the largest private wealth migration in history,” UBS told CNBC. Investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners’ data points to the breadth of the shift. The firm received enquiries from 218 nationalities in 2025, translating into applications from 100 nationalities across 95 countries for more than 40 residency and citizenship programs. Application volumes also rose 28% year on year.

Jurisdictional risks

Affluent families have historically gravitated toward jurisdictions offering political stability, personal safety, low taxes and high quality of life. What has changed, advisers say, is that jurisdictional risk is now being treated like financial risk, something to be actively diversified. “Families increasingly recognize that policy regimes can change rapidly, regulatory frameworks can tighten, and geopolitical tensions can escalate with limited notice,” said Deepesh Agarwal, managing director and co-founder at Farro & Co., an international mobility solutions provider. Wealthy individuals are treating where they live and what citizenship options they have with the same considerations they would extend to diversifying investments across assets, so they’re not overly dependent on any single country if policies or politics shift, Agarwal said. There are two main factors defining today’s migration, with the top being geopolitics and the speed at which it is developing. Policy changes that once took decades to materialize can now be implemented within a single political cycle, experts said.

Once a background consideration, geopolitics and policy changes has now moved decisively to the foreground. Residency decisions are increasingly informed by assessments of neutrality, institutional robustness and rule-of-law strength.

A recent example is the United Kingdom, where the abolition of the non-domicile tax regime in April 2025, after more than two centuries, triggered a sharp reassessment of the country among its wealthy residents. Henley & Partners estimates that the UK saw a net loss of about 16,500 millionaires in 2025 — with their wealth estimated at about $92 billion — compared with 9,500 in 2024 .