I don't remember ever having to tell any investment company what my entire net worth is. But, it's also been ages since I've opened an account with a company that I've never done business with. When my uncle died last year, I inherited his 401k and IRA. But both of them were with Fidelity. I was already a Fidelity customer, so it was just a matter of combining the two of them into an inherited IRA, put into my name. I do remember the lady asking me if I had investments anywhere else. I mentioned that my current company's 401k was with Schwab, but don't recall giving her any further information.
Now last year (or was it longer?) when Schwab took over TD Ameritrade, which had my online brokerage account, I got a phone call from one of their reps, because the TD Ameritrade account, plus a rollover IRA I had with my previous employer put me over some dollar threshold that gave me access to some kind of special client services. However, the guy that called me knew nothing about my Schwab 401k, so apparently 401ks are treated totally separate from other accounts. This guy's main focus seemed to be making sure I was happy and knew everything Schwab had to offer, and that I didn't plan to move the money to some other company. He also asked me a few questions about my investment goals, retirement timeline, and such. And he might have asked me about whether I had assets with other companies that I wanted to combine, but I didn't give him any specific totals.
But again, neither of these instances involving me approaching a new company to start business for the first time.
As far as people/entities that would know your net worth? About the only one I can think of, would be your mortgage loan officer, if you've recently taken out a mortgage or refinanced. At least, the last time I refinanced, I had to provide statements from all of my financial institutions, plus a few paystubs. But, that was about four years ago; they would have no idea what my net worth is now.
Also, I guess the courts would also know what your net worth is, at time of death. Or at least the value of everything that had to go through probate. When my Dad died, most of his estate stayed out of probate because he had me listed as the beneficiary on just about everything. But when my uncle died, even though I was listed as beneficiary, since I'm not a direct-line relative (Grandparent-Parent-child-Grandchild, etc) I have to pay inheritance tax on all of it, so the value of everything is getting filed with the court.
But yeah, I'm pretty sure there's nobody out there actually tracking the net worth of every person in the United States. The logistics behind it would be incredible. Just in my case, they'd need to pool the information from four different companies that I have investment/retirement accounts, plus the bank that handles my checking/savings, plus the I-bonds I have, plus the value of my house, minus the outstanding balance on my mortgage.
Now, if someone really wanted to find out all that information and compile it, and had the proper authority, I'm sure it could be done. But to constantly do that with every adult in the country, and keep the information more or less up to date, would be a monumental task.
So, whenever we see these lists that say how many millionaires, billionaires, etc are out there, median/mean net worth by age group, and so on, I'm sure those are just very rough, estimated guesses.
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