Adam Smith Institute: Number of UK millionaires at lowest level since 2008

I am seeing more high-net-worth clients ask how they can protect or diversify wealth outside Britain, with some considering leaving. Higher taxes matter, but the bigger issue is instability. Wealthy people can choose where they live, invest and hold assets, and they will not remain indefinitely where every Budget feels like a new threat to pensions, property, capital gains or wealth.

People often speak as though wealth arrived effortlessly. In reality, many business owners and investors spent decades building it, so they will protect it when the rules feel unpredictable. Someone with millions reacts differently to uncertainty than a salaried household with a mortgage and £30,000 in savings because they have the means to relocate or move capital.

Those worried about preserving wealth should avoid panic. They should review diversification, tax wrappers, pensions, liquidity and estate planning, while keeping their strategy flexible enough to withstand future policy changes.

Britain losing millionaires is not just a rich person’s problem- it is a warning light on the dashboard. Wealth is mobile, and when taxes rise, growth is weak and confidence drains away, people with options start exercising them. For clients, the concern is less about one bad year for asset prices and more about whether the UK still looks like a place to build and preserve wealth. The practical answer is not panic, but planning: diversify assets, use pensions and ISAs properly, keep enough cash for flexibility, and review tax exposure before decisions are forced on you. Wealth rarely disappears overnight, but it can be steadily eroded by inflation, poor returns and bad policy.

As a currency broker, I can confirm a sharp rise in HNW and UHNW clients emigrating from the UK. The ASI findings don't surprise me. Beyond paper-wealth erosion from sticky inflation and flat prime property prices, the real driver is policy friction. Scrapping non-dom status, tighter capital gains rules, frozen inheritance tax thresholds and shifting business asset reliefs have combined to make the UK a genuinely hostile tax environment. Add high post-pandemic mobility, and HNWIs and business founders aren't just weighing overseas moves, they're executing them, to Dubai, Switzerland, Portugal and Italy. Structured planning is now essential with full use of spousal allowances, Family Investment Companies for generational transfers, and globally diversified portfolios to hedge Pound Sterling volatility. For business owners, early succession and exit planning are critical.

Behind most of those millionaires is a house with the mortgage cleared and a pension they have not spent. A house you live in cannot emigrate. The clients raising this with me are not leaving. They ask what happens when they die. On ONS figures, property is 40 per cent of household wealth and private pensions another 35 per cent. The Adam Smith Institute counts both, and the figure is measured after inflation. It falls when houses and pensions do not keep up with prices. Emigration is not the whole story. The debate is aimed at the few who can leave, but the tax lands on the many who stay. From 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds count as part of your estate for inheritance tax. That is now law. The government estimates it adds 10,500 estates to inheritance tax in 2027-28. You get £325,000 tax free, plus £175,000 for a home left to direct descendants. That extra band shrinks on estates over £2 million. Count your pension alongside your house. From April 2027 HMRC will too.

The headline is striking, but it reflects several forces rather than a sudden collapse in wealth. Falling real asset values matter, yet we’re also seeing wealthier clients question whether the UK remains the best place to build and preserve capital. Tax is part of that conversation, but so are political stability, regulation and growth prospects.

The biggest factor is confidence. Once mobile wealth decides Britain is no longer worth the aggravation, it leaves - and winning it back is difficult.

For those staying, the answer isn’t panic but planning: diversify globally, use every available tax allowance, review estate and succession planning, and avoid irreversible decisions based on short-term headlines. Wealth is usually lost gradually through poor decisions, not overnight.