Survey Finds Unmet Needs among Affluent Investors

The Dow Jones Affluent Investor Study explored investors’ relationships with their adviser and found seven out of 10 respondents are extremely or very satisfied with their financial adviser. However, affluent investors named three areas that were not paid enough attention: tax strategies (17%), estate planning (14%), and emerging markets (13%). Dow Jones also found that one-third of affluent investors have not developed a retirement plan with their adviser.

Affluent investors often pursue self-directed investment strategies, Dow Jones reported. Online brokerages are the most common primary investment channel for this group (41%), followed by full-service firms (31%), and independent firms (28%). Newsletters are an effective communications tool for advisers, with two-thirds of respondents receiving a newsletter from their adviser and 77% of those who receive one reading it regularly.

“Advisers have clearly built strong relationships with many of their affluent clients but need to evaluate where they can provide additional value,” said Joe Cappitelli, vice president of Financial Markets at Dow Jones.

The study was conducted by an independent research firm in October 2010 and includes responses from 1,287 randomly selected U.S. investors at least 25 years old with a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets, excluding retirement plan contributions. The Affluent Investor Study is a biennial survey that was first completed in 2002.