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 Chief Executive Officer Julie Faupel, the paper argues that the fastest-growing class of wealth in nearly a decade is not simply more numerous but fundamentally different, and that the luxury real estate industry's traditional reliance on brand, volume, and visibility is mismatched to how this new wealth selects advisors.
The paper cites global personal wealth rising 10.8% in 2025, the strongest year since 2017, with nearly one million new millionaires created—more than 2,600 every day—and a record $297.8 billion passing to billionaire heirs in a single year. Minted contends that this minting is structural rather than cyclical, driven by entrepreneurial wealth creation and the largest intergenerational transfer in history arriving simultaneously. New wealth typically arrives as a liquidity event, and the first major real estate decision often follows within months. Rather than relocating, the new wealthy assemble residences, citizenships, and properties into a portfolio designed for optionality.
The implications for advisors are significant. According to the paper, 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 purchasing fewer luxury items but expecting more from each, and 47% weighing future regret before committing. Their objection is rarely affordability; it is uncertainty about whether they should buy at all.
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 advisor: 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."
REALM members quoted in the paper describe the same pattern. Bridget Ramey, a luxury real estate advisor in Austin, noted that when wealth is created quickly, someone's life can change faster than their trusted circle can form. Jack Cotton, a luxury real estate advisor on Cape Cod, said these clients are found not by becoming more visible but by becoming more referable.
The paper is the opening chapter of a broader effort. From May 17–19, 2027, the REALM Global Collective 2027 will convene 250 invitation-only participants at the Four Seasons Hotel Austin, including 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 heirs, cross-border counsel, stewardship, and the role of AI, shaping a definitive guide to luxury advisory to be published with Greentree Publishing and renewed annually. "This paper defines the client," Faupel said. "The work that follows will define the standard."
Minted is available now at the Minted – REALM Guide. REALM comprises approximately 600 luxury real estate advisors across 23 countries, more than 40 U.S. states, and over 150 brokerage brands, representing more than $50 billion in annual member sales.
