The Bloomberg index uncovered 115 new or little-known billionaires in 2015. In November, Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton lost her title as America’s second richest woman after recently-unsealed court documents revealed that her late husband, John T. Walton, gave a third of his Wal-Mart shares to their son, Lukas. At 29, he’s the 92nd-richest person in the world with $11 billion.
Elsewhere in the U.S., the rise of dominant investment banks, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. made billionaires of their respective chairmen, Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon, both of them rare instances of hired managers accumulating extraordinary wealth. The October initial public offering of iconic supercar-maker Ferrari NV cemented the billion-dollar fortune of second-generation heir, Piero Ferrari.
In Hong Kong, Yeung Kin-man has amassed a $10 billion net worth through Biel Crystal Manufactory, one of the biggest makers of glass covers for iPhones and other smartphones. Yeung’s rise came on the heels of the March initial public offering for Biel competitor Lens Technology Co. Ltd. that made Zhou Qunfei China’s richest woman. Zhou’s fortune increased more than $5 billion to $7.9 billion this year, a rise of 254 percent, the largest on the index.
As turbulent as 2015 may have been, 2016 may be even more so, according to Larry Adam, chief investment officer for Wealth Management Americas at Deutsche Bank AG.
"We’re going to see a lot more volatility than we’ve seen over the past couple of years,"said Adam, who sees emerging- market currencies and uncertainty around the U.S. election among the major market risks. "Much more muted performance and much more volatility. Caution is warranted."