Are the networths of very wealthy individuals self-reported or are they calculated by some group or organization. Also, if you are very rich, is it required to publicly disclose your wealth?
Wealthy investors - those with a net worth of $5 million or more - tend to agree that income isn't the best way to define how rich a person is [2]. Instead, a majority of respondents define rich in terms of a person's net worth - the total of all of their financial assets, minus their outstanding debts [2]. In 2005, Leonard Beeghley, author of "Society in Focus," defined the rich as the top 5% of households, or those with a net worth of at least $1 million [4]. Today, Beeghley's criteria for wealth are a bit out of date. Although a million bucks is still a serious chunk of change, it is no longer enough to put you in the top 5% of earners [4]. As of 2012, it requires a net worth of $1.9 million [4]. Nonetheless, income, measured either by household or individual, is the most commonly used measure for whether or not a person or business entity is considered rich [5].
Very wealthy individuals do not publicly disclose their wealth, rather it is calculated by a group or organization [1, 2]. An individual's assets including his stakes in public and private companies, real estate, cars, horses, yachts, art, cash in hand and bank, gold and his debt are to be accounted for [1]. The wealth defense industry - tax lawyers, accountants, wealth managers - help rich people figure out ways to sequester and hide wealth so that it doesn't even show up near a tax return [2]. They play a global shell game of shifting assets around between anonymous shell companies, trusts, and offshore banking centers [2]. Estimates from multiple outside sources put Trump's net fortune at a far lower value than $3.1 billion, the figure Forbes cited just a month earlier in April of 2020 [3].