Asia-Pacific region home to 3.3 million millionaires

What’s more, in a few years, the number of millionaires, defined as individuals with at least $1 million in investable assets excluding primary residences and collectibles, in Asia will exceed the tally of millionaires in the United States, suggests the report.

Asia-Pacific shines
Buoyed by a stupendous growth in China and India, the tally of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region climbed to 3.3 million, a 10 percent increase over last year. This compares to 3.4 million millionaires residing in North America. Europe houses 3.1 million millionaires.

The findings of the Merrill Lynch-Capgemini Report corroborate with the findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report which maintains that Singapore and Hong Kong are on course to better London and Switzerland and become the world's top wealth management centre by 2013.

“Regionally, Asia-Pacific was the real star of the growth story,” said John Thiel, head of U.S. wealth management for Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management unit.

The report revealed that although more than 50 percent of the world's millionaires reside in the United States, Japan and Germany, the wealthy are spreading among other countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India.

“While over half of the global high-net-worth individuals still resides in the top three countries, the concentration is fragmenting,” said Herbert Hensle, vice president and head of Capgemini in Switzerland.

“Regionally, Asia-Pacific was the real star of the growth story,” said John Thiel, head of U.S. wealth management for Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management unit.

The findings of the Merrill Lynch-Capgemini Report corroborate with the findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report which maintains that Singapore and Hong Kong are on course to better London and Switzerland and become the world's top wealth management centre by 2013.

Where do they invest?
Country wise, U.S., Japan and Germany, in that order, bag top three positions in terms of number of millionaires. China, home to 534,500 millionaires is at fourth position.

The report revealed that the millionaires in developed nations, wary of Europe's sovereign debt crisis, the U.S. budget deficit and a real estate slump, preferred to invest funds in liquid assets so that the same could be converted to cash easily.

“Our clients are still a little risk-averse about increasing that exposure. There's still plenty of things to worry about domestically and internationally,” Thiel said.

Asia-Pacific millionaires, on the other hand, were more heavily invested in local real estate, reveals the report.