Number of Millionaires Back on the Rise

After the financial crisis whittled down the number of millionaires in the U.S., the number is recovering.

According to Spectrem Group, the number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more grew 16% to 7.8 million in 2009, up from 6.7 million the year before. That upswing follows a sharp decline of 27% in 2008 (see “Number of Millionaires Declined Last Year”). The net worth figures don’t include primary residence.

Similarly, the number of ultra-high-net-worth households (those with a net worth of $5 million or more), advanced 17% to 980,000 in 2009. And the affluent population, or those with a net worth of $500,000 or more, grew by 12% in 2009 to 12.7 million.

“While still well short of its all-time high of 9.2 million in 2007, this year’s growth in the millionaire population is nevertheless welcome news for an economy still working to recover,” said George H. Walper, Jr., president of Spectrem Group, in a news release.

Spectrem’s “Affluent Market Insights 2010” is based on Spectrem Investor Research surveys of 3,000 affluent households conducted throughout 2009.

Targeted Communications Could Help Achieve Plan Results

Mercer said its recent effort with Synapses Inc., a provider of personalized 401(k) education, products, and services, indicates using targeted employee communications can achieve better plan results.

The program targeted a specific segment of one Mercer client’s employee population that was not contributing enough to receive the full company match (see “Zooming In”). Synapses provided targeted employees with a “personalized retirement report” leveraging key employee data points, and demonstrating a given employee’s potential retirement plan account balance at age 65, based on several hypothetical assumptions including taking the desired action of maximizing the employer-sponsored match.

“Just over 17% of targeted employees increased their contribution rate to better take advantage of their company match, which exceeded our client’s goals for the program,” noted Dave Tolve, retirement business leader for Mercer’s U.S. outsourcing business. According to Mercer, the plan’s result is much higher than the less than 2% of active, contributing participants in all Mercer-administered retirement plans that typically increase their contribution rate each month.

“We have seen a growing interest among plan sponsors to understand employee demographics in order to identify specific populations and then more fully engage each group in a meaningful way,” said Tolve. “We have found that, across our defined contribution client base, personalized campaigns, such as the recent experience with Synapses, generate higher success rates—with often twice as many participants taking the desired action versus non-personalized campaigns.”



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