Even as more young peopleentered the top 0.1 percent, most of their millennial andGeneration X compatriots were struggling. (Photo:Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) –The rich are getting richer, and younger.

A survey of U.S. investors with $25 million or more finds theiraverage age dropped by 11 years since 2014, to 47.

These fabulously rich Americans, whose ranks have more thandoubled since the depths of the Great Recession, are younger thanless wealthy millionaires. The average age of those with at least amere $1 million is 62, a number that hasn't budged inyears.

The finding suggests a “vast generational transfer of wealth” is“just beginning,” said George Walper Jr., president of the SpectremGroup, which conducted the study.

The sample size was small—185 Americans with more than $25million in net worth—but the findings are consistent with othereconomic research on the top 0.1 percent.

Those over 65 hold more than a third of U.S. wealth, a numberthat hasn't risen as quickly as the share of elderly Americans inthe population, University of California Berkeley economistsEmmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman found in a 2016 paper. In fact thevery wealthiest group of Americans “is actually gettingyounger.”

Where is this new money coming from?

A new generation of millionaires and billionaires probably oweas much to inheritances as to self-made fortunes. “There may bemore Mark Zuckerbergs at the top of the wealth distribution than inthe 1960s, but also more Paris Hiltons,” Saez and Zucman wrote.

About 172,000 U.S. households have net worthsof at least $25 million, Spectrem estimated last year. That's upfrom 84,000 in 2008.

About nine in ten investors under 38 attributed their success to“inheritance” and “family connections” in the Spectrem survey.

But the same proportion also said “hard work” and “running myown business” played a role. About 70 percent of the richestinvestors said they're still working.

The rise in super-wealthy young people shouldn't be all thatsurprising given the recent boom in Silicon Valley.

Technology and the ease of raising venture capital has createdfar greater numbers of new billionaires and multi-millionaires thanever before. An initial public offering or a rich funding round canmint a billionaire overnight whereas their predecessors oftenaccumulated riches by building up empires over decades.

Adam Bowen and James Monsees, creators of the ubiquitouse-cigarette Juul, are in their early 40s and late 30s,respectively. Stanford classmates Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev becamebillionaires at 33 and 31 last May after starting Robinhood MarketsInc., a financial services firm for millennials. And in September,a trio of cannabis-focused private equity investors in their 40sbecame billionaires after their bet on a Canadian pot firmsurged.

Even as more young people entered the top 0.1 percent, most oftheir millennial and Generation X compatriots were struggling.Americans 75 and older are the only age group whose median networth rose from 2007 to 2016, according to the Federal ReserveSurvey of Consumer of Finances released in July 2018.

Typical Americans age 35 to 54 saw their wealth—heavilyconcentrated in housing—plunge by more than 41 percent in that timeframe.

Meanwhile, the richest Americans are using complex estateplanning techniques to transfer wealth to their children,grandchildren, and beyond. Ninety-one percent of investors with $25million or more keep assets in a trust, Spectrem found, and halfhave three or more trusts set up.

Charity is getting less attention. Although nearly 200of the world's richest people have signed the Giving Pledge, theSpectrem survey suggests the typical rich person is much lessgenerous, at least so far. Of respondents with at least $25million, just 15 percent give away $100,000 or more annually.

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