New figures show that rising markets in equities and real estate, among others, helped boost the numbers of high net worth US households last year.

The number of US households with a net worth of $1.0 million or higher – excluding their primary resident – hit a record of 10.1 million last year, representing a rise of almost half a million such households in 2013, when the total was 9.63 million.

The figures from Spectrem Group’s Market Insights Report 2015, tracking population groups from mass affluent through to those with assets of $25 million or more. Such data will cheer the wealth management industry as it seeks to build momentum after recovering from the financial crisis of 2008. Rising equity and recovering real estate markets have contributed to the growth, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

In 2014, there were 29,500,000 mass affluent households with a net worth between $100,000 and $1 million, excluding primary residence; the millionaire segment, those with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million, grew by 400,000 to 8,790,000, another record high; the ultra high net worth market, with a net worth between $5 million and $25 million, grew to 1,168,000, an increase of 60,000, the report said. Among the $25 million plus segment, there were 142,000 households, an increase of 10,000, it said.

"In particular, the investors with over $1 million net worth is now at 10.1 million, breaking the 10 million threshold for the first time. Given the record level stock market in 2014, along with a full recovery of investment real estate and investors' perceptions of value in their own privately held businesses, it is not surprising that we're seeing these record numbers,” George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, said.

Such data comes at a time when the wealth management industry has in recent time been very focused on the “unique” attributes of next-generation - or emerging affluent - investors. However, these individuals aren’t all that different from today’s millionaires or even deca-millionaires in terms of their wealth accumulation potential and mindset, according to Bob Oros, head of Fidelity’s RIA clearing and custody segment. And they may prove even more profitable in the long-run.

Oro told this publication - as reported here - a few days ago: “Historically, advisors have set fairly strict client minimums – typically $1 million or more in investable assets. That’s really dominated most firms’ client acquisition strategy in the past. But we’ve seen a pivot recently with more and more advisors telling us that they’re looking to expand their client base beyond the traditional millionaire profile,” Oros told Family Wealth Report.

Also, as far as global trends are concerned, Forbes has revealed its 2015 list of billionaires. In its 29th year, it is a “snapshot of wealth” taken on February 13, 2015. A record number of individuals – 1,826 – have made it on Forbes' 2015 list of the world’s richest people, which represents an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion in 2014, it said.