Virginia Ranks In Top 10 For Millionaires In 2018

Virginia has more millionaire households than most of the United States with $5 million or more in assets, and the number of top 1 percent residents increased nationally to 1.1 million Americans in 2017, mostly in "blue" states. A new analysis says the richest Americans are overwhelmingly concentrated in states that were carried by Democrats in at least three out of the four past presidential elections.

The GOP tax bill with its new limits on itemized deductions of state and local income and property taxes, or mortgage interest, should have a greater affect on wealthy residents in Virginia and other blue states, says the annual Wealth & Affluent Monitor published by Phoenix Marketing International.

The study's authors call the wealthiest U.S. households "penta-millionaires." States with the highest concentration of these $5 million or more households include New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and Hawaii, all traditionally blue states. No. 5 ranked Alaska is the only red state in the top ten. Other top 10 blue states include Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

“The historic and continuing gains in the capital markets means that the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands continues unabated,” said David Thompson, Managing Director, Affluent Practice, at Phoenix Marketing International. “We were surprised to find that Penta-Millionaires are living in an overwhelming preponderance of blue states. Given all of the talk about rich Republicans, we would have expected to see more red states on the list.

Forbes and other rankings continue to show that Jacqueline Mars, heiress to the Mars candy fortune, is the richest person in Virginia and is worth $27.6 billion. Along with her brothers John and the late Forrest Jr. (who died in July 2016 at age 84), she inherited Mars Inc., headquartered in McLean, the secretive Virginia-based firm in 1999 when their father, Forrest Sr., died in 1999. Mars is known for candy (3 Musketeers, M&Ms, MilkyWay, etc.) but has many other brands outside the sweets area, including pet food and gum.

In the past year, the rich got richer, the PMI analysis shows. The 1 percent wealthiest Americans added about $214 billion in wealth over the past year, and now control 26.2% percent of the liquid wealth in the U.S., or about $9.7 trillion. Millionaire households now total about 7.2 million households nationally.

The concentration of wealth also continued at the top of the wealth pyramid, says PMI. Overall, U.S. affluent households (those having $100,000 or more in investable assets) numbered roughly 30 percent of households (38.1 million), but controlled over 91 percent of wealth.

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The 2017 Phoenix Wealth & Affluent Monitor shows few changes in the top 10 states ranked by the ratio of millionaire households to total households. The top state rankings of millionaires are:

• Maryland (7.87%) – remained No. 1, where it has been since 2011
• New Jersey (7.86%) moved up one place in 2017
• Connecticut (7.75%) moved down one place
• Hawaii (7.57%) – unchanged from 2016
• Alaska (7.50%) – unchanged from 2016
• Massachusetts (7.41%) – unchanged from 2016
• New Hampshire (7.36%) – unchanged from 2016
• Virginia (6.98%) – unchanged from 2016
• Delaware (6.62%) up one place from 2016
• California (6.61%) – up one place from 2016.

Methodology

The Wealth & Affluent Monitor sizing estimates in the U.S. are developed using a combination of sources including the Survey of Consumer Finance as well as Nielsen-Claritas. The SCF provides the framework and allows us to determine the general distribution of households by their level of investable assets. Estimates are further refined using the age and income distributions provided by Claritas. Investable assets include education/custodial accounts, individually-owned retirement accounts, stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, managed accounts, hedge funds, structured products, ETFs, cash accounts, annuities, and cash value life insurance policies.

Read the full analysis on the Phoenix Marketing International website.

PHOTO: Jacqueline B. Mars arrives for the formal Artist's Dinner honoring the recipients of the 39th Annual Kennedy Center Honors hosted by United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, December 3, 2016. (Photo by Ron Sachs - Pool via Getty Images)