About 82,000 millionaires shifted overseas in 2016: Report

New Delhi, Feb 21: Global wealth migration is accelerating as around 82,000 ultra rich people shifted overseas in 2016, compared to 64,000 in 2015 and Australia is the top country for millionaire inflows, says a report.

Millionaires or High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) refer to individuals with net assets of USD 1 million or more.

According to New World Wealth's latest report on global wealth and wealth migration trends in 2016, for the second straight year Australia remained the top country worldwide for millionaire inflows, beating out traditional destinations such as the US and the UK.

An estimated 11,000 millionaires moved to Australia in 2016 compared to 10,000 that moved to the US and 3,000 that moved to the UK.

The reasons behind HNWIs preferring Australia to USA and the UK is that Australia has one of the best healthcare systems in the world and its location makes it a good base for doing business in emerging Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and India.

Moreover, Australia is relatively immune to the turmoil in the Middle East and the related refugee crisis in Europe and it has lower inheritance taxes than the US and much lower inheritance taxes than the UK.

Other countries that experienced large inflows of HNWIs in 2016 include Canada, UAE, New Zealand and Israel.

On the other hand, countries that lost large numbers of HNWIs in 2016 included France, Turkey and Brazil.

Large outflow of millionaires from France (over 12,000 millionaires is 2016) is notable. France is being heavily impacted by rising religious tensions between Christians and Muslims, especially in urban areas, the report said.

"We expect that millionaire migration away from France will accelerate over the next decade as these tensions escalate," it added.

The report further noted that other European countries where religious tensions are starting to emerge such as Belgium, Germany, Austria, the UK, Holland and Sweden will also be negatively affected in the near future.

"Going forward, we expect HNWI migration into the UK to continue, despite the Brexit. In particular we expect large HNWI inflows from France, China, India, the Middle East and Africa into the UK. However, on the flip side, we do expect some UK HNWIs to move to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US over the next 10 years," the report said.