Which worries are most likely to keep this country's very, very rich from resting easy in their beds? Lazy offspring and the chance they may not be able to keep up their current lifestyle, a study of Canadians with more than $10-million in personal assets has found.
"The benefits of wealth are offset by some real challenges," said Rob Dawson, president of Sensus Research Inc., the company that surveyed 165 of what the investment industry calls "ultra-high-net-worth individuals."
"A lot of these individuals are self-made and they want to make sure their children are carrying on that strong work ethic and don't become complacent," he said.
Indeed, one-quarter of the survey's rich respondents said their biggest worry is that their children or grandchildren will be less motivated because of their family wealth. More than one-third of the sample said they worry most about maintaining their lifestyle.
When they are not tossing and turning, the very rich are keen on travel and golf, and prefer London as a getaway destination.
They favour Four Seasons Hotels and like to drive Mercedes vehicles most of all, the survey found. And despite this country's system of public health care, "good health and access to medical expertise" was ranked by close to half as the top benefit of wealth.
For the average working stiff, such findings may be a little hard to take as you down your morning coffee, but close to half of Canada's ultra-rich told the survey that they have not become happier as they have grown richer.
"I think there is a common perception that if you've got money your problems are gone. I don't think that is true," said David Bentall, whose father and grandfather built up a family fortune in B.C.'s construction and development industry. "You just have different troubles. I've seen the good and the bad."
Mr. Bentall, 50, who has found himself three times at the centre of a handoff of a family business -- some more successful than others -- now spends his time coaching other families on how to handle their wealth. He was also the founding chair of the Business Families Centre at the University of British Columbia.
Mr. Bentall said he has watched wealth drive families apart and bring them together. He says the greatest gift his family gave to him was not his wealth but the good reputation and respect that goes along with his name. More than financial wealth, he said what he now wants to pass on to his own children is good values, integrity and a spiritual dimension to their life.
Mr. Dawson says the study received a positive response from its subjects because there is so little information available about the very rich.
"This is not something they talk about around the dinner table. They have a desire to understand their peers."
The survey was commissioned by the T. Stenner Group, a Vancouver-based adviser to wealthy clients, which is part of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce's Wood Gundy operations. Its findings are contained in the T. Stenner Group truewealth Report.
Thane Stenner, senior partner of the group, has written extensively on the very rich, and has observed more than once that wealth often serves to accentuate an individual's traits. The generous become more generous, he observes, and the demanding get more demanding.
Still, the survey found that few of its respondents fit the Scrooge stereotype.
More than half of those surveyed said they had donated between $100,000 and $500,000 to a charity in the past year and 5 per cent reported making a $1-million donation.
The study found 75 per cent of respondents plan to give between 11 and 30 per cent of their estate to a philanthropic cause.
These are some of the other findings:
Just 20 per cent of the sample said they had bought real estate in the past year, 62 per cent said they were sellers and two-thirds said they believe the market is in for a "downturn" in the next 12 months.
If they had to choose just one place to invest 20 per cent of their wealth, half picked the stock market, followed by 12 per cent with real estate.
Asked what their main goal in investing is, half said it is taking care of their family's financial needs.
Mr. Bentall said wealthy individuals face many concerns; they just may not be the same as those of the average person.
"Financial success opens different doors and different windows," he said.
"You can still have troubles through those doors and windows."
