The World Wealth Report 2002 published by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, reports that the number of wealthy women around the globe is growing.

The proportion of female investors “looks destined to rise further,” forecasts the report. It found, “More women are likely to cross the threshold into the HNWI segment as their assets multiply.” (high net worth investors have financial assets of more than US$1 million, excluding real estate.)

“Nine out of 10 women manage their own finances at some point in their life,” said Michael Marks, chairman of Merrill Lynch’s International Private Client group. “While Merrill Lynch has made great strides in this respect, financial services firms need to do more collectively to help provide women investors around the globe with the appropriate financial information and skills.”

Merrill Lynch believes the number of women investors is growing fastest in North America, particularly in the U.S. “Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men and about a third of the working women there earn more than their spouses,” said Marks.

The report noted, “North America has more female HNWIs. Women already make up 43% of the North American affluent segment (above US$500,000 in financial wealth) and that percentage looks destined to rise.” Marks noted the number of wealthy women investors in the U.S. also is growing at a faster rate than that of men. From 1996 through 1998, the number of wealthy women in the U.S. grew 68%, while the number of men grew only 36%, according to data from The Spectrem Group. (That study defined wealth as having investible assets of more than US$500,000 or earning more than US$100,000 a year.)

The World Wealth Report also noted the number of high net worth individuals worldwide grew by almost 3%, just under 200,000 individuals, to 7.1 million people last year.

Their combined wealth rose approximately 3% to US$26.2 trillion in 2001, despite drops in most of the world’s equity markets.