By: Dr. Tamara Patzer
October 12, 2026
In Brief: The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released on October 9, 2026, puts median family net worth at $215,900 and mean net worth at $1.24 million. This feature sets those figures beside the top 1% income line and what Americans say wealth takes, and explains why a New Orleans tax attorney says owners should read averages with care.
The Federal Reserve released its latest picture of American family finances on Friday, October 9. The headline figures are modest. The details matter more to anyone who owns a company. A New Orleans tax and estate attorney, Todd M. Villarrubia, argues in his book Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™ that averages tell business owners almost nothing about their own position. Here is what the new data says, and how to read it.
What Did the Federal Reserve Report?
The 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances found that median family net worth was $215,900, up 2 percent from 2022 after adjusting for inflation, and mean net worth was $1.24 million, up 7 percent1. The Fed also said most families across the net worth and income distributions saw increases in median and mean wealth1. The release is dated October 9, 20261. The page summarizing it does not break results out by percentile, so this article does not either.
The gap between the two figures is the first lesson. A mean more than five times the median means a relatively small number of large fortunes pulls the average up. Both numbers are accurate, and neither describes the typical owner of a growing company.
How Does That Compare With the Top of the Distribution?
Far below. The Federal Reserve’s distributional accounts estimate that the top 1% held about $60.3 trillion in net worth in the second quarter of 20262. That is a different measure from the Survey of Consumer Finances, with a different method and timing, so the two should be compared for scale and not subtracted1,2.
Income tells a parallel story. For tax year 2023, a filer needed about $676,000 of adjusted gross income to reach the top 1%, according to the Tax Foundation’s analysis of IRS data4. Many owners assume the line is far above that. Villarrubia’s book says the opposite: the threshold is lower than many believe.
Who Is Most Exposed When the Averages Rise?
The owners who have added value on paper without adding liquidity. When asset prices and company valuations climb, a founder’s net worth can grow without any more cash arriving in the account. That raises the estate and tax exposure while the day-to-day picture stays the same. Villarrubia’s book makes a related point about discipline: “The common thread among them all isn’t greed but discipline.” In his telling, the families that keep their wealth are the ones that keep planning as the numbers grow, not just when they fall.
What Do Americans Think Wealth Takes?
More than the average. Charles Schwab’s 2025 Modern Wealth Survey found that Americans, on average, say $2.3 million in net worth makes a person wealthy3. Set beside the Fed’s $1.24 million mean, the typical view of wealth sits well above what the average family holds.
For business owners, the number that matters is different again. Many founders hold most of their net worth in one private company. Villarrubia’s book sums up the result with a short sentence: “Income is a flow; net worth is a stock.” A founder can have a high flow and a large, illiquid stock, and still feel far from the $2.3 million many people name.
Why Do Averages Mislead Owners?
Because they blend very different balance sheets. A family with a house and a retirement account and a founder with a company worth many multiples of that appear in the same average. Neither can use the figure to plan.
Villarrubia’s chapter on the families he describes makes the point from the other side. Those that hold on to wealth, he writes, “treat wealth like a business, not a windfall, and view legacy as a mission, not an accident”. Treating a balance sheet like a business means measuring it by its own facts: what is owned, how it is held, how liquid it is and who depends on it.
The book’s other recurring point is timing. “The 1% plans in decades, not pay cycles.” A median or a mean is a snapshot. A plan is a series of decisions made ahead of events.
What Should an Owner Take From the New Data?
Three things, none of them dramatic.
- The averages are rising, but they say nothing about concentration. An owner with one asset is exposed in a way a family average hides.
- The income line is lower than the popular picture, so more owners face top-tier tax and legal questions than expect to4.
- Wealth that is not planned tends to be passed along in a muddle. Villarrubia warns that “The question isn’t whether you’ll leave wealth behind, but whether you’ll leave a system in place to protect it and your family.”
The takeaway is not alarm. It is that headline averages are a poor guide for anyone whose wealth is concentrated, and that a few hours spent on a personal balance sheet are worth more than any national statistic.
What Is a Sensible Next Step After Reading the Numbers?
Pick one question and take it to your advisers. It might be how much of your net worth sits in one company, how quickly it could be turned into cash, or who in the family understands the plan. A single specific question tends to produce a more useful answer than a general request for a financial check-up. Write the answer down, put a date on the follow-up and share the note with everyone who advises you. Small, concrete steps like these build the habit that planning depends on, and they cost far less than the surprises they prevent.
Common Questions
Is the Fed’s mean net worth the same as the top 1% line? No1,2. The mean is an average for all families, while the top 1% is a group defined by income or net worth depending on the source1,2.
Will these figures change? Yes. The Fed releases its distributional accounts quarterly, and the family survey comes out every few years, and tax thresholds shift every year2.
Does this article say what a specific owner should do? No. It describes public data and one attorney’s published views. Owners who want advice on their own numbers should speak with a licensed attorney and a tax professional who can see the whole picture, including the company, the family and the state.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Board, press release on the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances
- Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (FRED)
- Charles Schwab, 2025 Modern Wealth Survey (Business Wire)
- Tax Foundation, Who Pays Federal Income Taxes? Tax Year 2023
About the Author: Dr. Tamara Patzer is a publisher and former newspaper editor. She was on the staff of The Charlotte Sun when it was named a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its Hurricane Charley coverage.
About the Source: Todd M. Villarrubia is an attorney with an LL.M. in Taxation and a Juris Doctorate. He is an Accredited Estate Planner, a Board Certified Expert in Estate Planning and Administration, and a Fiduciary Investment Advisor Representative. He is the author of Entrepreneurial B.E.A.S.T. Mode™.
Wealth Planning Law Group, 101 W. Robert E. Lee Blvd., Ste 404, New Orleans, LA 70124.
Phone: 504-982-8207
Email: todd@lawealthplan.com
Website: Wealth Planning Law Group
Disclaimer: Attorney advertising. Sponsored feature written on behalf of Todd M. Villarrubia. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Results vary.
