Revealed: How America’s richest families build – and keep – their wealth

CHICAGO, ILL.
September 9, 2008 12:01am

A high-income job, a stuffed 401(k) plan, the big house, the boat and the college fund for the children can signify that a person is rich – but not wealth.

George Walper Jr., president of Spectrem Group and with more than 25 years of experience in wealth management, retirement, and trust services, noted there is a profound difference between being rich and being wealthy.

He set about trying to figure it out over 10 years of quantitative research with thousands of real millionaires.

“Individuals, regardless of their level of wealth, never describe themselves as ‘wealthy,’” says Mr. Walper. “They always think of someone far wealthier as being rich.”

(George Walper talks about becoming wealthy and passing the wealthy from one generation to the next in today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Please left-click on the link below to listen, or right-click to download the MP3 audio file to your computer or mobile media device.)

Mr. Walper notes that about 33.4 million American households are considered “mass affluent” -- worth between $100,000 and $1 million.

“We find that most wealth in this country is everyday Americans who live next door to each other,” Mr. Walper says.

He says his research has identified the two consistent strategies that can help the “mass affluent” become “Rockefeller rich”:

• Own income-producing real estate in addition to the primary residence. Such an asset earns money for today and can be passed down to heirs.

• Practice continually innovative entrepreneurship such as having a substantial stake in a company, product or service that represents a whole new way to make money.

Mr. Walper and Catherine McBreen, managing director of Spectrem Group, have compiled their research and conclusions in a new book, “Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass it on: The Wealth Accumulation Secrets of America's Richest Families (January 2008; Portfolio).

“Households that have achieved — or are on their way to — perpetual wealth typically invest at least 50 percent and as much as 68 percent of their assets in private enterprises and real estate,” say the authors.