Domestic economic and social woes are encouraging US millionaires to think of leaving, or moving to lower-taxed, more amenable cities and locations. The number of HNW people considering living in the US and becoming citizens has also dropped.

The number of Americans considering quittng the US has surged by the highest percentage on record while the volume of millionaires wanting to enter the country has fallen, according to a migration advisory firm specializing in advising wealthy people.

Henley & Partners said it received the most enquiries from US citizens on record in 2022 (a 447 per cent increase from 2019) when, for the first time, Americans ranked highest of all nationalities worldwide applying for residence and citizenship by investment programs. 

Such data come at a time when rising federal taxes, worries about crime, inflation, political unrest and other woes are encouraging some HNW US citizens to renounce citizenship. (To take that step requires people to pay a fee. Starting from January 7, the sum is being slashed to $450 from £2,350.) The US taxes its citizens on a worldwide basis, so expats must file an annual IRS return regardless of whether they spend any time in the US. This has been criticized as a burden, since expats can struggle to access foreign financial services. 

“The tide is turning in the USA, a country shaped by generations of immigrants from across the globe, whose descendants went on to create the largest wealth market in the world. As we enter 2023, a new dynamic is playing out, with wealthy Americans seeking greener pastures abroad at an unprecedented rate,” the firm said in a statement yesterday. 

The findings come in Henley’s inaugural USA Wealth Report.

The report also shows that there is a significant internal movement of high net worth individuals within the country. Cities such as Austin, Scottsdale, Greenwich, and Miami are gaining millionaires, while the big wealth hubs of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City are losing them.

To cater to demand for expatriation and other migration requirements, Henley said it has opened three offices in the US in recent months.

“The new consumer class rising up in non-Western countries will ultimately outnumber Western consumers by three billion or more. The American Dream that is floundering in its birthplace is being re-conceptualized by this developing consumer class and reaching that base might well mean stepping outside of US borders and establishing yourself and your family elsewhere,” the author of the report, Jeff D Opdyke, said. 

A number of firms advise HNW clients about moving to other countries, obtaining second passports and handling cross-border issues. Examples include award-winning Huriya Private - see an article about it here. Other firms include Range Developments, a company which works with clients applying for access to the US through the Caribbean and Grenada’s E2 investment program, and Farani Taylor. A pan-industry group, the Investment Migration Forum, has developed in recent years to represent this specialist area, hold discussions, lobby for change and where necessary, scold countries with poorly designed or questionable programs.