Wealth Migration: The American Wealth Paradox

When it comes to wealth creation, the US is the undisputed world leader. According to the 2025 UBS Global Wealth Management’s Billionaire Ambitions Report, the country is home to 924 billionaires, almost a third of the global billionaire population of 2,919 individuals, with billionaire wealth in the US rising to $7.5 trillion. 109 new US billionaires were created in 2025, the majority (87) of them self-made.

Yet when it comes to structural attractiveness for internationally mobile wealth, the US comes much lower down the list. Hoxton Wealth works in partnership with Henley & Partners, specialists in residence and citizenship planning. In their Private Wealth Migration Report 2026 which scores jurisdictions using a Global Wealth Mobility Framework, the US recorded a score of just 62.3 out of 100 – a score that is – perhaps surprisingly – lower than a number of less developed economies, including Latvia (71.7), Uruguay (71.8) and Brazil (64.2), a country categorised in a group of jurisdictions facing more persistent structural wealth mobility challenges.

At first glance, that looks like an odd result for the world's largest and most dynamic private wealth market. However, the factors which make a jurisdiction propitious for wealth creation do not necessarily make it a competitive destination for wealth mobility.

The US has not stopped attracting wealth - quite the opposite. Businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs continue to be drawn to the US for a range of reasons, including its capital mobility, financial sophistication, culture of innovation, strong rule of law and the broader institutional environment that supports complex wealth structuring and business activity. For inbound capital, the US remains a magnet for global capital.

At the same time, it is Henley & Partners' single largest source market for residence and citizenship planning globally. Applications from US nationals doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year and have remained elevated into 2026.

What makes this particularly striking is who is applying. Only a small fraction (7%) of these applications come from Americans already living outside the US - the overwhelming majority are filed by people who still live in the country. However, this is not simply a story about wealthy Americans leaving, it's also a story about wealthy Americans based at home, deliberately building optionality.

In this context, optionality doesn't necessarily mean relocating. It means holding the right to live, invest or hold citizenship in more than one place - a form of flexibility a family may never actually use, but wants available if circumstances ever call for it.

Basil Mohr-Elzeki, Managing Partner and Head of Private Clients Americas at Henley & Partners, captures the shift in how these families are approaching the decision: "the wealthiest families increasingly think like portfolio managers." Rather than choosing a single country to live, invest and eventually retire in, they are building residence in one jurisdiction, citizenship in another and business or banking structures in a third to ensure no single government holds the whole of a family's life and capital.

This makes perfect sense. Diversification has always been a cornerstone of sound financial planning - spreading risk across asset classes, currencies, and geographies rather than depending on any single outcome. What's changed is that citizenship and residence are increasingly being treated the same way. Rather than viewing where you live and which passport you hold as fixed, one-off decisions, more families are approaching them as another axis of diversification - deliberately built up over time, in the same spirit as a well-balanced portfolio, rather than as a reaction to any single event.

This pattern isn't unique to Americans, either. The UBS report found that 36% of billionaires globally have already relocated at least once, with a further 9% considering it. Interestingly, tax efficiency wasn't even the leading reason - it was cited by 35% of respondents, behind a better quality of life and geopolitical concerns, both cited by 36%. 

The motivations behind this current wave of wealth mobility extend well beyond tax considerations alone, to include political stability, healthcare and education access as well as long-term personal and family resilience.

For clients who are US citizens, hold a US passport alongside another nationality or have family members with US ties, a few points are worth bearing in mind:

Citizenship-Based Taxation Doesn't Disappear With Distance

A US citizen living anywhere in the world generally remains liable for US tax on worldwide income and subject to US reporting obligations, regardless of local residence. Additional residence or citizenship elsewhere doesn't change this - it needs to be planned around it, not instead of it.

Optionality Is A Long-Term Position, Not A Reaction

The families driving this trend are largely doing so from a position of stability, not urgency. Building in additional options works best when there's no pressure attached to the decision - which is precisely the point at which many families choosing not to plan ahead end up wishing they had.

A Second Citizenship Adds Complexity As Well As Flexibility

Additional nationalities can affect estate planning, reporting obligations, and how assets are structured across borders. While increased options may provide solutions to certain issues, it can leave wealthy individuals and families with more to manage, not less. Which...

The American Wealth Paradox is really a story about how wealthy families now think about risk - not as a reason to leave a country that has served them well, but as a reason not to depend on any single one. For US-connected HNW families, that means building a plan that accounts for citizenship-based taxation, cross-border reporting and long-term flexibility, all at once.

Hoxton's advisers work with US-connected clients on exactly this kind of planning. That means coordinating international residence and citizenship strategy alongside the layer of US obligations that comes with it - reviewing how investments, pensions and business structures held outside the US interact with US tax and reporting rules, working alongside specialist US tax professionals where needed, and helping families build genuine international optionality without losing sight of what still has to be reported, filed and accounted for back home.

If you are searching for greater international optionality, our experience and expertise in this area is unmatched. We invite you to get in touch to start a conversation and discover the best solutions for your family.