Diversions January 24, 2013

Travel Likely to See Upswing This Year

Most travelers have a favorite hotel brand, work alone in their hotel rooms and decry the lack of overhead compartment space on airplanes.
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Almost half of business travelers expect to be on the road more often than they were two years ago, according to a survey by Frequent Business Traveler magazine in association with FlyerTalk. A third of business travelers surveyed anticipate taking more trips in 2013 compared with 2012.

The survey of an international sample of 1,349 business travelers during the last quarter of 2012 polled participants from the U.S. (65%), Canada, the U.K. and the European continent.

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The survey also found:

  • Almost three-fourths of those surveyed prefer to stay at their favorite brand(s) of hotel; 58% will stay at their favorite brand even if the property isn’t conveniently located, while the rest will select a different hotel.
  • Of the 86% who work from the hotel when traveling, almost nine out of 10 often do so in their hotel room. Only about 2% said they prefer to work in a lounge and almost 7% claimed they liked to work in the hotel lobby.
  • Security checkpoint-related delays were not a top grievance. Rather, insufficient space for carry-on bags took the top spot, with poor in-flight service a close second. Flight delays came in at number four, cramped seating number five.

Nearly 80% said that they would choose to fly with their preferred airline even if the flights were not as convenient as those on a different airline. Of those who have a preferred airline, only about 17% said that their experience on a different airline was highly noticeable. Almost all those surveyed said they were members of an airline loyalty program. Of these, approximately three quarters were members of two to five frequent flyer programs and almost 15% were members of six or more.

Data & Research January 23, 2013

Wealthier Participants Turn to Outside Advisers

Nearly two-thirds of retirement plan participants use a financial adviser to assist them in managing their plan investments, a survey found.
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According to “Millionaire Corner,” a newsletter issued by Spectrem Group, which focuses on high-net-worth investors, of these, nearly one-fourth (23%) used an adviser not affiliated with their plan provider. Sixty percent said their adviser assists with their entire portfolio and not just their retirement investments. One-third use them as sounding boards before acting on their plan investment decisions.  

Full service brokers and independent financial planners are the types of advisers most often sought out by plan participants. Almost half of those using an out-of-plan financial adviser said they had an established relationship with that adviser before it expanded to include plan investments. An almost equal percentage said they had consulted their plan provider first, but determined that the level of assistance they wanted was not available to them.  

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The largest proportion of participants (41%) said they have been working with their adviser for 3.5 years. More than one-third of these investors talk or email their out-of-plan adviser monthly, while more than 60% contact them quarterly or even less frequently. A majority (56%) said they had conducted an in-depth review of their complete portfolio within the previous six months. Nearly half of respondents using an out-of-plan adviser reported they had purchased investment products or paid for a financial plan over the previous year.   

The survey found client satisfaction with these advisers is high, with 90% of respondents who use them stating they have confidence that their out-of-plan adviser fully understands their objectives and 83% confident that by working with their adviser they have become more knowledgeable investors. Eighty percent said working with their adviser helped them to earn a higher rate of return than they would have without the out-of-plan assistance.

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