Editors' pick: Originally published Feb. 14.

When much of the world has the means to share any opinion it wants at any time, it's far more challenging to find a topic that people won't discuss

Even silence is a luxury afforded only to the rich.

A recent survey by international financial advisory agency deVere Group discovered that the wealthier classes covet civility as much as any luxury item. It recently asked 830 clients who have investable assets of more than $1.3 million which subject was the most difficult to discuss with family, friends and colleagues. According to responses from the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, there is a global consensus that prizes silence about certain topics for the sake of decorum, public perception and maintenance of personal relationships

While only one answer applies to DeVere directly, the Top 5 least-discussed topics would make for unpleasant conversation in both the barroom and the board room. With social media only amplifying discord once reserved for the loud guy at the restaurant or the less-tactful relatives at a family dinner, it's worth looking at the wealthy's taboo topics and determining if discussing them with anonymous strangers is any more fruitful than bringing them up in awkward face-to-face interactions:

5. Health Issues

Percentage of responses: 5%

No family relishes an aunt's retelling of her latest goiter operation, complete with every prurient, viscous detail. They tolerate it even less at a dinner table where they're ostensibly attempting to enjoy a meal without it being rendered unpalatable by each passing phrase.

But that fairly obvious discomfort underlies the basis for avoiding most idle healthcare discussions: Everyone is anxious about their health and well-being. Though long-term care insurance provider Genworth says 70% of people over 65 will need long-term care, a survey of wealthy investors by financial firm UBS Wealth Management finds that 77% have not set funds aside for future medical expenses, only 50% have factored healthcare costs into their overall financial plan and just 23% have saved for their future care. Meanwhile, the greatest fear among wealthy investors as they age is being a burden to children (42%), beating out surviving on life support (34%) or living in a nursing home (15%).

It's a fear shared across the classes. Hartford Funds found that 46% of American workers and retirees are frightened of becoming a financial burden on their family members and not saving enough money to enjoy their later life. Meanwhile, adult children are concerned about their aging parents' ability to live the lives to which they've become accustomed.

While all of the above likely should discuss their health care plan with someone -- and plans for long-term care with family and loved ones -- healthcare remains an understandably prickly topic.

4. Religion

Percentage of responses: 10%

This is one of those good rule-of-thumb topics to avoid in mixed company, which is why bartenders have shut down discussions about it for generations.

Considering how important personal relationships are in cultivating and maintaining wealth, there's a reason why the wealthy avoid the topic altogether. It's also the reason why they withdraw their businesses from the discussion as well.

When the Georgia state legislature earlier this year attempted to pass a "religious freedom" bill with language targeting gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual and gender queer persons, corporate interests began distancing themselves from it. 21st Century Fox, AMC (whose hit show "The Walking Dead" films in Georgia), Apple, every Atlanta professional sports franchise, Comcast, Disney, Delta Airlines, Microsoft, Dow Chemical, Paypal, Time Warner, Coca-Cola and other companies responded by voicing their intent to withdraw business from the state. Gov. Nathan Deal eventually killed the bill.

It's a scenario that's repeated, with similar results, in Indiana, Arizona, Illinois and elsewhere. While often interpreted as a political statement, it boils down to just one statement: People of all beliefs buy products. Alienating them doesn't create wealth.

3. Sex

Percentage of responses: 14%

How many chief executives need to lose jobs before the rest figure out that boardrooms and breakrooms aren't connected to the bedroom.

A host of sexual harassment complaints against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes led to his ouster earlier this year. Former American Apparel CEO Dov Charney was unseated after a company investigation claimed, among other offenses, that he'd sexually harassed employees and engaged in other acts of sexual misconduct.

Former Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, ex Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, Former Boeing chief Harry Stonecipher, ex-Stryker CEO Stephen MacMillan and one-time Lockheed Martin president and COO Christopher Kubasik all lost their jobs after their sex lives became a liability for both their companies and their employees.

2. Politics

Percentage of responses: 28%

There are a lot of ways to donate money and exert political influence in far more private fashion without dragging your business interests into it.

Unless you're Donald Trump and are completely willing to have your personal brand and businesses hitched to your political platform, it typically isn't advisable to give your politics a public airing when there's personal wealth at stake. You can amass enough wealth to inoculate yourself against any boycott -- think George Soros or the Koch Brothers -- but unless you're either OK with alienating half of your potential consumers or produce a product so essential that it's tough for those consumers to do without it altogether, taking sides isn't going to help your business.

"It is also, perhaps, unsurprising that politics is becoming more of a taboo subject amongst our nearest and dearest," says deVere chief executive Nigel Green. "We're living in a divisive political era, as evidenced by the rise of Donald Trump as a potential U.S. president and the Brexit vote, amongst other issues."

1. Money

Percentage of responses: 43%

It's deVere's favored answer, but it's also far less taboo that it was two years ago.

In 2014, with the financial crisis just starting to wind down and outward displays of wealth still frowned upon, 61% of the world's wealthy felt that money was a taboo topic. But with markets rising (and even withstanding global upheaval, China's economic softening and the Brexit), that theater of aspirational wealth is returning for a encore -- subprime credit inflation, be damned.

"For the better-off in many countries, there has often been a sense of embarrassment or guilt surrounding their wealth and, as such, it was and/or is gauche to talk about.," Green says. "There's the misplaced underlying feeling that to talk about financial privilege is to flaunt it. This shame-like sentiment is despite the fact that the wealthiest individuals have often been and continue to be some of the most important job and wealth creators and philanthropists."

But the discussion of wealth doesn't always have to be a garish display of said wealth. As green notes,business leaders, politicians, celebrities and those who have inherited their wealth routinely have their finances discussed in the public domain with the help of social media and other digital avenues. Instead of simply highlighting their wealth, that public notoriety also serves a watchdog function and acts as a check on income inequality. It not only puts into question how that wealth was obtained, but highlights the reasons that various other people don't similar opportunities to build their own wealth..

"When money is an awkward topic of conversation, it is easier for people to get an unfair deal," Green says. "These people typically tend to be women and ethnic minorities. Silence about money issues can often allow the unfairness to continue unabated."

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.