Wealth Advisory Clients Want Wider Focus

New Spectrem Group research finds wealthy investors are seeking engagement with their professional financial advisers on “other aspects of their lives that do not necessarily involve the bottom line.”

As explained by George Walper Jr., president of Spectrem Group, financial providers and advisers have always been expected to play a traditional role in helping investors achieve attractive returns on their investments, “but increasingly there is more to the relationship than that.”

“Today’s investors have long-term financial concerns that go far beyond the daily performance of the markets,” Walper says. “In addition to financial advice, investors are also looking to advisers for assistance with matters related to the broader life issues of retirement, insurance and health care.”

Key findings from the study show millionaires (those with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million not including primary residence) and mass affluent investors (with a net worth between $100,000 and $1 million) are “very likely to be seeking advice on establishing an estate plan, long-term care matters and retirement income.”

Somewhat surprising, Spectrem finds, is that ultra-high net worth investors—those with more than $5 million in investable assets—are actually most interested among the wealth groups surveyed in finding assistance with long-term care strategies. Unlike lower income groups, affluent population segments are likely to be able to afford long-term care premiums and other expenses associated with hedging longevity risk. This has the effect of making wealthy investors likelier to proactively plan for things like long-term care, despite being better able to absorb unanticipated financial burdens such as a chronic illness or disability. 

Additional research and information are at Spectrem’s Millionaire Corner blog.