REALM's 'Minted' White Paper Identifies a New Wealth Class and What It Means for Texas Advisors

REALM, an invitation-only global network of luxury real estate advisors, has released a white paper titled Minted: Who the New Wealthy Are, and What They Expect. Authored by Founder and CEO Julie Faupel, the paper examines a structural shift in wealth creation and its consequences for the advisory industry. The findings carry particular weight for Texas, where Austin is set to host the network's Global Collective in May 2027, positioning the state as a focal point for conversations about how new wealth is served.

The paper reports that global personal wealth rose 10.8% in 2025, the strongest year since 2017. Nearly one million new millionaires were created, more than 2,600 every day, and a record $297.8 billion passed to billionaire heirs in a single year. Minted argues this is not simply more wealth but different wealth: younger, faster, more liquid, more mobile, and more skeptical of inherited relationships. The luxury real estate industry was built to win clients through brand, volume, and visibility, but the newly minted choose advisors through introduction, discretion, and authority. That mismatch, the paper says, is the defining problem of this moment.

Drawing on REALM's membership intelligence and global wealth research, Minted identifies six findings. The minting is structural, not cyclical, as entrepreneurial creation and the largest intergenerational transfer in history arrive at once. New wealth arrives as a liquidity event, and the first major real estate decision often follows within months. The new wealthy do not relocate; they assemble residences, citizenships, and properties into a portfolio designed for optionality. Loyalty is no longer inherited: 81% of next-generation inheritors plan to leave their parents' wealth firms, and only 17% of high-net-worth individuals describe their advisory experience as seamless and personalized. Permission, not price, governs the purchase, with 52% of affluent buyers buying fewer luxury items but expecting more from each, and 47% weighing future regret before committing.

For advisors, the implications are direct. The new wealthy choose people, not brands, and they choose early. Most real estate advisors arrive after the decision has already been shaped by the wealth manager, attorney, and family office who meet new wealth first. Minted maps four gates every prospective advisor must pass—introduction, verification, discretion, and intelligence—and sets out nine practices defining what REALM calls the Trusted: present before the liquidity event, fluent across borders and generations, and leading with intelligence rather than inventory.

“Wealth has always been made. What has changed is the speed, and the shape of the people making it,” Faupel said. “The brand does not win this client. The advisor does. Trust is the currency, and it is earned one relationship at a time.” Austin luxury advisor Bridget Ramey, a REALM member who contributed to the paper, described the pattern in her own market: “When wealth is created quickly, someone's life can change faster than their trusted circle can form. They often have the capital before they have the counsel. When you consistently show up for them, you become more than an advisor; you become the person they trust for whatever comes next.”

The paper is the opening chapter of a broader effort. On May 17–19, 2027, the REALM Global Collective 2027 will convene 250 invitation-only participants at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin: 200 senior advisors and 50 ultra-high-net-worth capital gatekeepers. Working councils will produce positions on the first 90 days after a liquidity event, covering the heir, cross-border counsel, stewardship, and the role of AI, among others. Those positions will shape REALM's definitive guide to luxury advisory, to be published with Greentree Publishing following the Collective and renewed annually. “This paper defines the client,” Faupel said. “The work that follows will define the standard.” Minted is available now at Minted – REALM Guide.