Ah, the Secluded Life

At a recent members-only meeting of the California based Institute for Private Investors, some of America's richest were partaking in the ultimate luxury: talking about the problems associated with extreme wealth, such as handling conflicts between multimillionaire heirs and choosing a reliable wealth manager. There was comfort in being among people who could relate; 80 percent of IPI's members have investable assets of $50 million or more. For them, sipping champagne at a paparazzi-covered art opening is as pass? as carrying around the latest Louis Vuitton handbag, and far less important than the exclusivity IPI membership affords them. "What the wealthiest families want is to have a community where they can share questions, resources and experiences," says IPI director Kristi Kuechler.

Hey, everybody needs to fit in somewhere.

The superrich have long had various places—clubs, jets, resorts and communities—where they could temporarily retreat from the rest of the world. But now the members-only phenomenon is exploding into a whole way of life, encompassing everything from private-banking coalitions to invitation-only health clinics. With security concerns growing and Internet gossip capable of trashing global reputations in an instant, those with money are increasingly locking their entire lives behind closed doors. Rather than attend media-heavy events, they arrange concerts, fashion shows and art exhibitions in their own homes. They shop afterhours and have their neighbors (and potential friends) vetted for class and cash. In essence, it's a return to the way the wealthy lived before the hippie ethic of the 1960s made it cool to mingle with other classes. "The very rich don't want to be in restaurants where they might be sitting next to a tourist," says William Cash, editor of Spear's Wealth Management Survey, a European magazine for multimillionaires.

In part, the focus on members only is simply a result of there being more rich people to associate with. According to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini's 2007 World Wealth Report, the number of people with more than $1 million in assets excluding their primary residence grew by more than 8 percent last year, to 9.5 million worldwide. Their ranks are swelling the fastest in the developing world: Latin America saw a whopping 23 percent growth in nouveaux riches last year. The wealthy elite also live more globally nowadays with, say, an Indian passport, a castle in Scotland, a pied-à-terre in Manhattan and a private Caribbean island. Because of their global presence, the ultrarich can no longer count on local word-of-mouth networks to tune them in to whom they can trust.

As a result, businesses like IPI, which are built on creating trusted elite communities, are booming. In February the New York-based Luxury Institute will roll out a new Web site, LuxuryRatings.com, that will allow members with a minimum net worth of $3 million to exchange recommendations and advice with other high rollers on such essentials as yacht brokers, private islands, prenup lawyers, art dealers and even neurosurgeons. Quintessentially, the luxury-lifestyle concierge service—started by Prince Charles's nephew in Britain—has grown from 14 offices around the world a year ago to more than twice that today. It charges up to $50,000 a year in exchange for getting its clients into the most exclusive international parties, events and clubs.

The rich definitely do not want to live among the masses. More gated communities are on the rise, including Dubai's man-made World islands and Moscow's new $3 billion Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye development. At London's new ultra-exclusive address, 1 Hyde Park, more than 700 applicants have registered to pay as much as $41.2 million for one of just 80 apartments—even though the complex is not set to open until 2010. "They dine privately, shop privately, view art privately; everything is private, private, private," says Ahlya Fateh, managing editor of Britain's upper-class lifestyle magazine Tatler. "These people literally never leave the confines of [exclusive London postcode] SW3 unless they're in a helicopter or blacked-out Humvee entourage."