A model of this text first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth e-newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly information to the high-net-worth investor and client. Sign up to obtain future editions, straight to your inbox.
The top 10% of Americans added $5 trillion to their wealth in the second quarter as the inventory market rally continued to learn the largest buyers, based on new knowledge from the Federal Reserve.
The complete wealth of the top 10% — or these with a web price of greater than $2 million — reached a record $113 trillion in the second quarter, up from $108 trillion in the first quarter, based on the Fed. The improve follows three years of continued progress for these at the top, with the top 10% including over $40 trillion to their wealth since 2020.
All wealth teams noticed beneficial properties over the previous 12 months, with the web price of the backside half of Americans rising 6% over the previous 12 months, based on the Fed knowledge. Yet the progress has been quickest for these at the very top. The top 1% have seen their wealth improve by $4 trillion over the previous 12 months, a rise of 7%. Their wealth hit a record $52 trillion in the second quarter.
The top 0.1% noticed their wealth develop by 10% over the previous 12 months. Since the pandemic, the top 0.1%, or these with a web price of not less than $46 million, have seen their complete wealth almost double to over $23 trillion.
Despite the latest quicker progress at the top, the complete shares of wealth held by the higher echelon has remained pretty secure for many years. The top 1% held 29% of complete family wealth in the second quarter, in contrast with 28% in 2000. The top 10% held 67% of complete family wealth in the quarter whereas the backside 90% held 33%.
The largest driver of wealth beneficial properties at the top this 12 months has been the inventory market. The worth of the company equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 10% elevated from $39 trillion to over $44 trillion over the previous 12 months. The top 10% of Americans maintain over 87% of company equities and mutual fund shares.
The inhabitants of the ultra-wealthy can also be rising quickly. The quantity of ultra-high-net-worth Americans, or these price $30 million or extra, grew 6.5% in the first half of 2025, after surging 21% final 12 months, based on a new report from Altrata. There are actually 208,090 ultra-high-net-worth people in the U.S., accounting for 41% of the world’s complete.
The surging wealth at the top has created an more and more bifurcated client economic system, with the rich accounting for a rising share of total spending. Consumers in the top 10% of the revenue distribution accounted for 49.2% of client spending in the second quarter, marking the highest stage since knowledge began being compiled in 1989, based on Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics.
The so-called “K-shaped economy” has carried out properly to this point, not less than based on broad financial measures similar to GDP and consumption. Yet the rising dependence on a small sliver of shoppers at the top carries dangers.
Zandi stated a deep and extended decline in the inventory market, which is driving nearly all of the wealth beneficial properties at the top, may ship wider ripples by means of the economic system.
“The economy is being powered in big part by the spending of the extraordinarily well-to-do, who are cheered by the surging value of their stock portfolios,” he stated. “If the richly (over) valued stock market were to stumble, for whatever reason, and the well-to-do see more red on their stock tickers than green, they will quickly turn more cautious in their spending, posing a serious threat to the already fragile economy.”