The Numbers Behind the Movement
In 2025, approximately 142,000 millionaires relocated internationally — a record that Henley & Partners projects will climb to roughly 165,000 in 2026. For the business press, these figures tend to generate headlines about tax havens and capital flight. For founders and entrepreneurs, they represent something more nuanced: a fundamental shift in how ambitious people think about where they build their lives.
The traditional model — build your company, live in your home country, perhaps buy a holiday property abroad — is giving way to something more deliberate. Wealthy founders are increasingly treating residency the same way they treat investment portfolios: diversified, risk-adjusted, and actively managed.
Andrew Raming of Henley & Partners captured the shift precisely at a recent forum in Bangkok: affluent clients are now treating jurisdictional exposure "the same way they treat asset allocation." For anyone running a business across borders, this framing is immediately intuitive.
Why the UK Is Losing — and What It Means for London-Based Founders
For entrepreneurs based in Britain, the data carries particular weight. The United Kingdom experienced notable millionaire departures in 2025, driven by a combination of shifting tax policy, political uncertainty, and a regulatory environment that many perceive as increasingly hostile to wealth creation.
This does not mean London has lost its relevance — far from it. The city remains one of the world's great centres of talent, culture, and commercial energy. But for founders whose businesses are genuinely global, the question has evolved from "Where do I live?" to "Where do I hold residence, and how many options do I maintain?"
- UAE attracted 9,800 millionaires with zero income tax and Golden Visa stability
- US drew 7,500 millionaires but generated equal outbound interest from its own citizens
- Southern European programmes offer EU access with favourable tax treatment
- Singapore's family office ecosystem expanding rapidly under MAS oversight
The Productivity Argument for Jurisdictional Optionality
There is a practical, unsentimental case for founders to think about residency strategically — and it has less to do with tax rates than with operational freedom.
A founder who holds residency in two or three jurisdictions can locate themselves wherever they are most productive at any given moment. They can be in Singapore during an Asia-Pacific expansion. They can be in Dubai for a Middle Eastern partnership negotiation. They can return to London for board meetings and investor relations. At no point does their immigration status become the limiting factor.
This kind of mobility was once the exclusive preserve of the ultra-wealthy. Today, residency-by-investment programmes have made it accessible to a much broader cohort of successful entrepreneurs. The cost, relative to the optionality it provides, is modest.
More importantly, it removes a category of risk that most founders never consciously account for: the risk of being trapped by circumstance in a jurisdiction that no longer serves their interests. Political change, tax reform, regulatory shifts — these are not hypothetical risks. They are current realities in multiple major economies.
From Theory to Practice
The challenge, as always, lies in execution. Understanding that jurisdictional diversification matters is straightforward. Actually implementing it — navigating immigration requirements, tax residency rules, banking relationships, and the logistics of a multi-jurisdiction life — requires a level of coordination that most founders find draining.
This is where the right support structure makes a tangible difference. Not legal advice in the abstract, but practical, hands-on guidance that connects the strategic intent with the lived reality. At Conciergen, we work with founders who have made the decision to diversify — and need someone to ensure the transition enhances their productivity rather than consuming it.
The 165,000 millionaires projected to relocate in 2026 are not fleeing. They are optimising. And for founders who think strategically about every other aspect of their business, it may be time to apply the same rigour to the question of where — and how — they live.
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