New Hampshire goes to the polls, but no billionaires are voting
State has one of the largest ratios of millionaire residents
As Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have crisscrossed New Hampshire railing against billionaires ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, there was little risk of an awkward run-in with one of those billionaires. There are no billionaires living in the state.
But while there’s no one living in New Hampshire with a 10-figure net worth, there are plenty of millionaires. As of 2017, the Granite State had the seventh-highest per capita millionaire population in the U.S., according to Phoenix Marketing International’s “Wealth & Affluent Monitor.” Some 7.36 percent of New Hampshire residents had at least $1 million in investable assets, according to the report.
The wealthiest person in New Hampshire is Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli, according to Forbes and 24/7 Wall St. She’s an heir to the family fortune of Ludwig Reimann, a German chemist who was a partner at the business that today is JAB Holding Company, the owner of brands like Panera Bread, Pret A Manger and Krispy Kreme.
A Panera Bread retail location in Indianapolis.
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Reimann-Ciardelli sold off her stake in the company to other family members in 2003, according to Forbes. She had reportedly been a billionaire as recently as 2018. Reimann-Ciardelli‘s net worth is estimated at $720 million.
IRS records show Reimann-Ciardelli’s nonprofit group has donated millions to a variety of causes, including food banks and soup kitchens, museums and conservation groups, children’s services organizations, hospitals and cancer research.
New Hampshire’s millionaire population has been rising, according to the Phoenix Marketing report. Back in 2010, there were fewer than 30,000 millionaires in the state and they accounted for 5.79 percent of the population. By 2017, there were nearly 40,000 millionaires in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire State House in Concord, New Hampshire. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
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There are several reasons New Hampshire is attractive to millionaires. For one, the “live free or die” state has no income tax.
Geography may also play a role. Seven of the 10 states with the highest ratios of millionaires were located in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic, according to the Phoenix report.
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.
There’s also quality of life to consider, Business NH Magazine reported. New Hampshire offers many quiet scenic places for the affluent to enjoy their wealth in peace. Don Cichon, a local financial adviser, told the magazine in 2017 that the state’s low population density and its available natural resources are attractive to some wealthy people.
“For the folks who are millionaires, a difference of a few thousand dollars in taxes is worth the quality of life we have in New Hampshire,” he told the magazine.