The luxury real estate industry faces a structural mismatch between how it has traditionally won clients and how the newest class of wealthy individuals selects advisors, according to a white paper released by REALM, an invitation-only global network of luxury real estate advisors. The paper, titled Minted: Who the New Wealthy Are, and What They Expect, argues that wealth is being created faster and by different people than at any point in nearly a decade, and that this shift demands a new advisory model.
Global personal wealth rose 10.8% in 2025, the strongest year since 2017, with nearly one million new millionaires created—more than 2,600 every day—and a record $297.8 billion passed to billionaire heirs in a single year, according to the paper. These figures underscore that the minting of new wealth is structural, not cyclical, driven by entrepreneurial creation and the largest intergenerational transfer in history occurring simultaneously. The implication for advisors is clear: the clients of tomorrow are being made today, often through liquidity events such as funding rounds or public offerings, and their first major real estate decision frequently follows within months.
Unlike previous generations, the newly wealthy do not simply relocate; they assemble residences, citizenships, and properties into portfolios designed for optionality. Loyalty is no longer inherited: 81% of next-generation inheritors plan to leave their parents’ wealth firms, and only 17% of high-net-worth individuals describe their advisory experience as seamless and personalized. Moreover, permission, not price, governs the purchase, with 52% of affluent buyers purchasing fewer luxury items but expecting more from each, and 47% weighing future regret before committing. Their objection is rarely affordability; it is uncertainty about whether they should buy at all.
This behavioral shift means that the new wealthy choose people, not brands, and they choose early. Most real estate advisors arrive after the decision has already been shaped by wealth managers, attorneys, and family offices who meet new wealth first. Minted maps the four gates every prospective advisor must pass—introduction, verification, discretion, and intelligence—and sets out nine practices that define the advisor this generation requires, a figure REALM calls the Trusted: present before the liquidity event, fluent across borders and generations, and leading with intelligence rather than inventory.
“Wealth has always been made. What has changed is the speed, and the shape of the people making it,” said Julie Faupel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of REALM. “The brand does not win this client. The advisor does. Trust is the currency, and it is earned one relationship at a time.” The paper is available at the Minted – REALM Guide.
The implications extend beyond individual advisor practices. Minted is the opening chapter of a broader effort: on May 17–19, 2027, the REALM Global Collective 2027 will convene 250 invitation-only participants at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin, including 200 senior advisors and 50 ultra-high-net-worth capital gatekeepers. Working councils will produce positions on the first 90 days after a liquidity event, covering heirs, cross-border counsel, stewardship, and the role of AI, among other topics. Those positions will shape REALM’s definitive guide to luxury advisory, to be published with Greentree Publishing following the Collective and renewed annually. “This paper defines the client,” said Faupel. “The work that follows will define the standard.” For an industry built on brand, volume, and visibility, the message is that the future belongs to those who can earn trust through introduction, discretion, and authority—one relationship at a time.
