Capgemini, the consulting firm which has partnered with Merrill Lynch in producing a closely-watched global wealth report, will now work with Royal Bank of Canada instead to produce this survey.

Capgemini, the consulting firm which has partnered with
Merrill Lynch in producing a closely-watched global wealth report, will now
work with Royal Bank of Canada
instead to produce this survey.

The World Wealth Report
is now in its 16th year. The new partnership also includes the annual
Asia-Pacific survey.

“The reports are supported by both primary and secondary
research, updated annually using Capgemini’s proprietary Lorenz curve
methodology and are widely read by top executives in the banking, securities
and insurance industries,” RBC and Capgemini said in a statement.

Last year’s report showed that the population of high net
worth individuals rose 8.3 per cent to 10.9 million in 2010, with these clients
holding $42.7 trillion in investable assets – up 9.7 per cent. It also showed
they are becoming younger, more female, more trusting in their firms, more
willing to take investment risks and are more widely represented in nations
such as India.

In a sign of rising gaps between the wealthy and
super-wealthy, the number of ultra high net worth individuals rose by 10.2 per
cent to 103,000 last year, while their wealth rose by 11.5 per cent,
decelerating from the 21.5 per cent growth rate in 2009, that report said. The
report covers 71 countries, and measures wealth by reference to national
accounts to obtain savings data, measuring assets by book value and are
adjusted to reflect stock indices.

"After many successful years of
partnering with Capgemini on the World Wealth Reports, we’ve made the
decision to focus primarily on proprietary surveys," a BoA Merrill Lynch spokesperson told this publication. 

The move by RBC to partner with Capgemini over this report
comes in the wake of reports, which Bank of America Merrill Lynch has not
denied – that it intends to sell its non-US wealth management business.