Super-rich Koreans tend to be more thinking, judging personality types

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One out of four super-rich individuals with total assets of more than 30 billion won ($22.7 million) or financial assets of more than 10 billion won in South Korea turned out to be an “ESTJ” in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a self-report test that divides individuals into 16 distinct personality types across 4 axes.

The super-rich had an average asset of 32.3 billion won and were mostly business managers. They more than doubled their cash reserves and deposits last year while halving the share of stocks. Yet, stocks and real estate still remain as their top investment. ESTJ stands for extroverted, sensing, thinking and judging. Financial assets, in particular, were greater in size among individuals with a higher ratio of thinking and judging.

Hana Institute of Finance said Sunday that it has published the “2023 Korean Wealth Report,” which is based on an interview of private bankers at Hana Bank, 21 of their customers and an online survey of 2,013 individuals consisting of 745 rich individuals, 818 mass-affluent individuals and 450 ordinary people in December last year. The report defined those who have more than 1 billion won in financial assets as rich and those with more than 100 million won and less than 1 billion won as mass affluent.

The more assets one has the lower the introverted or sensing ratio and the higher the thinking and judging ratios, according to the report. The proportion of the ESTJ type was the highest particularly in the super-rich group. It was 26.8 percent among the ultra-wealthy people, more than three times higher than a mere 8.5 percent among the ordinary people.

ESTJ types are often referred to as leaders or managers and are known to value social order, be realistic and driven. “Many bank private bankers also say that ‘drive’ is a key element of the wealthy,” Hana Institute of Finance said.

The annual income of the super-rich was about 1.2 billion won on average, of which property income was the highest at 39 percent, or approximately 500 million won. For the rich, earned income accounted for 37 percent, higher than 22 percent of property income in the entire annual income. The super-rich spent 57 percent of their monthly income on savings, 37 percent on consumption and 6 percent on debt repayment. They had more savings than the rich, whose consumption accounted for 59 percent and savings 38 percent.

[Photo by MK DB]

The super-rich were mostly comprised of corporate executives at 29 percent, followed by medical and legal professionals at 20 percent, real estate lessors at 12 percent and business executives at 12 percent. Only 2 percent were office workers and none were public officials.

Total assets of the super-rich were 32.3 billion won on average, down 5 billion won from 37.3 billion won the previous year. Financial assets accounted for 50 percent, real estate 48 percent and others, including memberships, precious metals and artworks 2 percent.

Cash and deposits accounted for 58 percent of their total financial assets at the end of last year, more than doubling from 25 percent, which is in contrast with the rich, mass affluent and ordinary people who saw little change. The share of stocks dropped to 16 percent last year from 45 percent the previous year.

Stocks were the most favored choice for future investment among the richest group at 29 percent, followed by real estate at 27 percent and deposits at 15 percent. The most preferred investment was artworks. About 41 percent of the super-rich had artworks in possession, which is higher than that 23 percent of the rich or 14 percent of the mass affluent.

Last year, 70 percent of the super-rich saw a positive return on investment in financial assets and 15 percent of them delivered a high return of more than 10 percent. About 60 percent of these richest individuals in Korea have set a target return of 5 percent to 10 percent for this year and 15 percent of them as high as more than 20 percent.

“There were opportunities to create wealth in every crisis, from the past currency crisis, global financial crisis to the pandemic-triggered crisis,” said Hwang Seon-kyung, a senior analyst at Hana Institute of Finance. “Those who capture the opportunities become the new rich and super-rich.”