Something important is happening in America.
Hispanic families are not simply earning more. Increasingly, they are owning more.
Homes. Businesses. Investments. Assets that can grow, produce income, provide security, and potentially be passed to another generation.
According to the 2026 State of Hispanic Wealth Report, Hispanic household wealth has more than tripled since the Hispanic Wealth Project was established in 2014. The report identifies progress across four areas of wealth creation: real estate, business ownership, financial assets, and asset protection.
Those numbers deserve to be celebrated.
But I believe they also deserve to be studied.
Because while this report focuses on Hispanic wealth, the fundamental lessons behind that progress aren’t exclusively Hispanic.
They are lessons about ownership, discipline, preparation, family, protection, and purpose.
And those lessons can serve all of us.
Hispanic Wealth Has Come a Long Way
To appreciate the progress, we need to understand where this particular story began.
The Hispanic Wealth Project was established by NAHREP in 2014, in the aftermath of the Great Recession and 2008 housing crisis. According to the 2026 State of Hispanic Wealth Report, Hispanic households lost as much as two-thirds of their household wealth during that period. Many Hispanic families had purchased homes near the peak of the housing bubble and held a larger portion of their wealth in home equity, leaving them particularly vulnerable when home values fell.
In response, the Hispanic Wealth Project set an ambitious goal: triple Hispanic household wealth by 2024.
That goal was achieved ahead of schedule.
The organization has since established a new objective: reduce the proportional wealth gap between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White households by 50% by 2034.
There is still significant work ahead. Wealth disparities remain.
But progress matters.
Median Hispanic household wealth more than tripled between 2013 and 2022. Hispanic owner-households reached 10.2 million in 2025. Hispanic-owned employer firms are expanding rapidly. More Hispanic households are also participating in retirement plans, brokerage accounts, stocks, and other financial assets.
To me, the most interesting part isn’t one statistic.
It’s the pattern behind them.
Wealth grows differently when we move from earning to owning.
The Four Pillars of Hispanic Wealth
The 2026 report gives us a useful framework for understanding that shift.
It examines wealth through four interconnected areas: real estate, business ownership, financial assets, and asset protection.
1. Real Estate
Real estate remains foundational to Hispanic household wealth.
Hispanic owner-households reached a record 10.2 million in 2025. The report also states that Hispanic homeowners hold 26.4 times the net worth of Hispanic renters.
That doesn’t mean buying a home automatically creates financial success. Nor does it mean homeownership is right for everyone at every moment.
It demonstrates something more fundamental.
Ownership matters.
A home can provide stability and create equity over time. Real estate may also become part of a broader investment strategy.
But a house should not necessarily be the end of someone’s wealth-building journey.
It can be a beginning.
2. Business Ownership
Entrepreneurship tells another powerful part of the story.
According to the report, Hispanic-owned employer firms grew 49.5% over five years, compared with 3.7% growth for employer firms overall. These businesses generate $832 billion in annual revenue.
For entrepreneurs, however, there is an important distinction between creating income and creating an asset.
A business may pay you well today. The bigger long-term question is whether that business is also helping you build equity, personal assets, financial independence, and something of value beyond your next paycheck.
Hard work matters.
But eventually we should ask:
What is all this hard work building?
3. Financial Assets
This may represent one of the most important opportunities in the report.
Financial assets represent an important opportunity for Hispanic families to further diversify their wealth. According to the report, 45% of Latinos held a tax-preferred retirement account, yet only 21% felt their retirement savings were on track. Access remains another challenge: only 47% of Latino workers have access to a retirement plan through their employer.
That’s an important distinction.
A raise can increase your income.
A bigger business can increase your income.
A promotion can increase your income.
But income alone isn’t wealth.
What matters is what happens after the money arrives.
Do you keep some of it?
Are you controlling unnecessary debt?
Are you investing appropriately for your goals and circumstances?
Are you acquiring assets?
Is your net worth growing?
Those questions take us from making money to building wealth.
4. Asset Protection
This fourth pillar may be the one people overlook most.
We spend years thinking about how to build wealth and surprisingly little time asking how to protect what we’ve built.
The Hispanic Wealth Project itself evolved in this direction. Its original blueprint centered on sustainable homeownership, entrepreneurship, and increased savings and investments. It later added asset protection and estate planning as a component goal.
The need becomes increasingly important as wealth grows.
More than 1.2 million Hispanic households now report a net worth of at least $1 million, according to the report. Yet it reports that only 14% of Latino adults have a will and 11.1% have a trust.
That evolution in the wealth conversation makes sense.
Eventually, we must move from:
How do I accumulate it?
to:
How do I protect it?
and eventually:
How do I transfer it?
That can involve questions around insurance, beneficiaries, wills, trusts, powers of attorney, estate planning, business protection, and other strategies depending on someone’s circumstances.
Building something valuable is one responsibility.
Preparing for what happens to it when life doesn’t go according to plan is another.
Wealth Is More Than a Number
This is where the 2026 report connects deeply with something I teach as a NAHREP 10 Certified Trainer.
The first of the NAHREP 10 Disciplines is:
Have a mature understanding of wealth and prosperity.
My interpretation of that principle goes beyond a bank balance.
True prosperity should strengthen your finances, but it should also create greater freedom, family strength, purpose, and the opportunity to make an impact.
You can earn a lot of money and still live paycheck to paycheck.
You can own an expensive car and have little invested for retirement.
You can have a successful business while your family is financially vulnerable if something happens to you.
Visible success and financial strength are not always the same thing.
That is why I want people to think about wealth differently.
A Simple Wealth-Building Journey
One way I think about the process is:
EARN → KEEP → BUILD → PROTECT → TRANSFER → IMPACT
Earn: Develop your skills, profession, or business so you can produce income.
Keep: Control spending and debt so everything you earn doesn’t disappear.
Build: Acquire assets that support your long-term goals. These may include investments, real estate, retirement assets, or business equity.
Protect: Consider the financial and legal risks that could disrupt what you’re building.
Transfer: Decide intentionally how assets and knowledge should reach the next generation.
Impact: Use your success, experience, resources, and time to improve lives beyond your own.
The first five can help create and preserve wealth.
The sixth gives wealth greater meaning.
Why This Matters Beyond the Hispanic Community
I’m proud to discuss Hispanic wealth. I’m proud of the resilience, entrepreneurship, family responsibility, sacrifice, and aspiration reflected in this report.
But my work isn’t limited to Hispanic families.
The data may tell a Hispanic story. The disciplines behind building a stronger financial life can serve everyone.
Whether your last name is García, Johnson, Williams, Patel, Rodriguez, Smith, or something else, the fundamental questions remain remarkably similar.
What are you earning?
What are you keeping?
What do you own?
What do you owe?
What are you building?
What have you protected?
And who benefits from everything you’re working so hard to create?
Those are not Hispanic questions.
They are human questions.
Financial Freedom Starts With Clarity
Reading a national wealth report can tell us where millions of households are heading.
It cannot tell you where your household stands.
That’s personal.
You may need to reduce debt.
You may be doing well financially but haven’t accumulated enough outside your home or business.
You may need to think more intentionally about retirement.
You may be concerned about paying for your children’s education.
Perhaps you’ve accumulated meaningful assets but haven’t given enough attention to protecting your income, family, or estate.
Before deciding on solutions, you need clarity.
That’s why I believe in starting with what I call a Financial Blueprint conversation.
The purpose is simple: understand where you are today, clarify where you want to go, identify potential gaps, and determine which areas deserve attention.
Not everyone needs the same strategy.
Your goals matter.
Your family matters.
Your timeline matters.
Your financial situation matters.
And your dreams matter.
From Survival to Legacy
Financial progress often begins with survival.
Can I pay the bills?
Then comes stability.
Can I get out of debt and build some breathing room?
Eventually, the questions become bigger.
Can I build financial freedom?
Can I help my children start from a stronger position?
Can I use what I’ve learned and built to serve someone else?
That’s the progression I care about:
SURVIVAL → SUCCESS → SIGNIFICANCE → LEGACY
My vision of legacy isn’t simply leaving money behind.
I want my legacy to be that I served others so they could live a better quality of life and become better versions of themselves, financially, educationally, spiritually, and in their family lives.
And I hope they choose to serve others in the same way.
That’s when wealth becomes más que dinero.
More than money.
It becomes freedom, family, purpose, service, and the opportunity to leave people better than we found them.
Your Next Step: Start With Your Own Financial Picture
The 2026 State of Hispanic Wealth Report gives us encouraging evidence of what can happen when income increasingly becomes ownership.
Now bring the question home.
Which part of your financial life deserves more attention right now: earning, keeping, building, protecting, transferring, or impact?
You don’t need to solve everything today.
But you should know where you’re starting.
If you’d like to have a Financial Blueprint conversation with me, we can look at your current situation, goals, dreams, and financial priorities and identify the areas that may deserve your attention next.
Start a Financial Blueprint conversation with Mark Pinilla
Continue the Conversation with Mark Pinilla
Growth doesn’t stop when the article ends. Keep learning, challenging your thinking, and building a life of success, significance, and legacy.
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