High net worth individuals, otherwise known as HNWIs, are people with a certain amount personal assets. Millionaires fall under this category, since the common standard used for determining if one is an HNWI is having a minimum net worth of more than a million US dollars. However, it must be noted that in order to fall under this category, one must take into account financial assets only. Other types of assets, such as those in the form of land and other properties, are not counted in the computation to qualify for this classification. For this reason, there is a large number of people who may seem to be extremely wealthy because of the scope of their ownership but who will still not be considered as HNWIs.
While reaching HNWI status may already seem very impressive, there is another category of even wealthier individuals. Those who possess more than 30 million US dollars, again, in the form of financial assets, fall under the category ofUHNWIs, or ultra-high net worth individuals.
In the world of business, it is not surprising for HNWIs to be given a certain level of preferential treatment. There are, for example, some communities in which the value of land and real estate is so high that only HNWIs can afford to live there. As a result, many communities can be made up of an exclusive population of HNWIs, which may add even greater prestige to the location. At the same time, certain businesses, such as jewellery and luxury vehicle dealers, are set up specifically to address the needs and desires of the HNWI and UHNWI market.
