Rich Americans make their money, while Europeans inherit theirs

A mere 6% of Europe's richest people derived their wealth from finance in 2001, according to the World Wealth Report, produced annually by Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

This was in stark contrast to the US, where 17% of the country's super-rich had a financial services background.

The report, based on Forbes magazine's list of the wealthiest 400 Americans and the Eurobusiness list of the 400 richest Europeans, suggests that Europeans are better off buttering up wealthy relatives and running shops, than pursuing investment banking bonuses.

In 2001, 37% of the wealthiest Europeans had inherited wealth, compared to 21% of the wealthiest Americans. A further 17% of the richest Europeans had derived their wealth from retailing; in America the comparable figure was 4%.

Christopher Humphries, a vice president in private banking and asset management at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, said the differences were to be expected.

"Million dollar bonuses have been paid out on Wall Street for the past 30 years. They've only hit Europe recently and really, they've only hit London."

Nor is Humphries confident that financial services will generate more of Europe's wealth in the near future. He said : "Given that we have the worst M&A market for many years and equity markets are going through the floor it would be foolhardy to be too bullish about the future significance of Europe."

Instead, Humphries forecasts that befriending rich relatives will become ever more important. "The baby boom generation is growing up, dying and passing wealth on. What we will really see an increase in over the next few years is people making money out of inheritances."