'I'm a billionaire. A real one': Lawyer claims only about 20 Americans actually have $1 billion in the bank and he's one of them

“I don’t consider anybody a billionaire that doesn’t have a real billion in the bank,” lawyer John Morgan said on an episode of The Iced Coffee Hour podcast. “Guess how many people have a real billion, liquid? Maybe 20.”

Morgan is an attorney and politician best known as the founder of the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, the largest personal injury firm in the country. Forbes estimates Morgan is worth about $1.5 billion, and as he shared on the podcast, the majority of that money is liquid in his bank account, unlike most ultra-wealthy people.

“I’m a billionaire. A real one,” said Morgan.

“Look, Kanye West was a billionaire. That [expletive] wasn’t a billionaire,” Morgan continued. “He’s making $40 million a year and that means it's a 25x, and 25 times 40 is one billion, you’re a billionaire.”

West is an interesting example, considering that his billionaire status was quickly lost after several brands cut ties with the controversial artist. Forbes had estimated the rapper was worth $1.5 billion thanks to an Adidas deal, but dropped his net worth to $400 million after the deal was cut.

Still, Morgan’s point is an interesting one considering there are now more billionaires than any other time in history — nearly 3,800 of them. According to Altra, the combined net worth of the billionaire population hit a record $15.1 trillion in 2025.

But the term billionaire usually means a net worth of $1 billion, not $1 billion sitting in cash or readily sellable securities. So, just how many of these people actually have a billion dollars liquid?

Liquid billionaires

While Morgan claims there are only about 20 other billionaires with that value in liquid cash, the exact number — and who they are — is difficult to pinpoint.

A U.S. Trust survey found that wealthy investors with more than $3 million usually hold about 15% or more of their assets in cash, but that percentage drops significantly for billionaires. The survey found billionaires usually hold between tens of millions to a few hundred million dollars in cash, an amount often making up less than five percent of their assets.

For most billionaires, the majority of their fortune is spread across various assets, such as equity stakes in public companies, business ownership, real estate and various other investments, such as art, cars and luxury goods.

While these holdings are typically worth eye-watering amounts of money, they’re not liquid, meaning they can’t quickly be converted into cash. This is why many billionaires are considered “cash poor,” a term referring to someone with a lot of their wealth tied up in assets.

Cash poor billionaires

Even Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, had implied he’s cash poor.

“My ‘net worth’ is almost entirely due to my ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. I have <0.1% that is cash,” Musk wrote in a post on X in February.

According to Forbes, Musk’s net worth is currently around $870 billion. If less than 0.1% is liquid, that means Musk only has $870 million at his disposal — an immense sum, but significantly less than his net worth.

So, where is his vast fortune if less than 0.1% of it is liquid? The majority is in the stocks of his two companies, SpaceX and Tesla. A new SEC filing revealed Musk owns 48.4% of SpaceX, which is worth about $860 billion at the time of writing. He also owns nearly 11% of Tesla, a stake worth about $150 billion. The two stock holdings alone have a combined worth of just over $1 trillion.