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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
As women grow their share of global wealth, they’re also becoming a larger share of the billionaire class, with a new set of goals and philanthropy, according to a new report.
Of the 3,323 billionaires in the world, 13% (or 431) of them are women, according to the Altrata Billionaire Census. While that may seem small, their numbers and share have been growing gradually over the past 10 years.
According to the report, “growth in female entrepreneurship, slowly changing cultural attitudes, and the rising frequency of substantial inter-generational wealth transfers” will continue add to the feminization of the three-comma club.
Inheritances have been the most powerful driver. Of the 431 female billionaires today, three-quarters inherited a portion of their wealth, according to the report. Fully 38% inherited all their wealth, including the three of the richest women in the world, Alice Walton ($104 billion), Julia Flesher Koch and family ($76 billion) and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers ($73 billion), Altrata said. By contrast, only 5% of male billionaires inherited their fortunes.
A quarter of women billionaires are self-made, compared to 66% for men. Those inheritances may become even more common. According to a report from Cerulli Associates, women are expected to inherit up to $30 trillion in the coming decade as part of the Great Wealth Transfer.
Male and female billionaires also give and spend differently. Women, for instance, put a greater focus on nonprofit and social organizations, according to the report.
Nearly one in five female billionaires spend most of their professional time in nonprofits, compared with 5% of men. The report said the prevalence of inheritances among women is the main reason for the charitable focus, since they tend to have “fewer commercial commitments” and “there tends to be a strong link between inherited wealth and earlier engagement in philanthropy, welfare and social justice.”
Billionaire women also have slightly different financial portfolios. Since they often inherit private companies, they have more of their wealth in private holdings (35% versus 28% for men) and more liquid assets and cash (39% versus 30%). Billionaire men have far more stocks, with men having 40% of their wealth in stocks compared with 22% for women — due largely to the tech-focused billionaires who launched public companies, the report said.
Female billionaires are far more likely to own luxury real estate and art. They are 1.5 times more likely, for instance, to own real estate worth more than $10 million. Billionaire men, on the other hand, are more likely to enjoy their “toys,” such as private jets, yachts and pricey cars. Billionaire men are 3.8 times more likely that billionaire women to own a car worth more than $1 million. And they are more than twice as likely to own a yacht.
The gender divide over hobbies is even greater. For female billionaires, philanthropy was the most cited hobby, at 71%. For men, sports was the top hobby, at 71%. More women also cited art, education and travel as hobbies, while men were more interested in aviation, the outdoors and politics.