Insight - In 2020, the ultra-rich just got richer

Killer instinct: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The rich were extraordinarily agile in taking advantage of the biggest market dislocations, with Forbes estimating that billionaires had gotten 20% richer in 2020 by mid-December. ─ Bloomberg

IN 2020, as the world convulsed under Covid-19 and the global economy faced its worst recession since World War II, billionaires saw their riches reach new heights.

Now some are talking to their wealth managers about how to keep a hold of and consolidate their fortunes amid the global debris of the pandemic. Others are discussing how to preempt and navigate demands from governments, and the wider public, to pick up their share of the recovery costs.