Affluent Investors Expect Slow Recovery

More than half of surveyed affluent investors view their household as financially worse-off now than a year ago, and two-thirds anticipate no improvement in their financial situation for at least one year, according to research from Phoenix Marketing International.

The good news for advisers is that the majority of affluent investors—defined as having investable assets of $100,000 or more (excluding employer-sponsored retirement plan assets)—are seeking out advice. Thirty-six percent of surveyed investors have recently met with a financial adviser, and another 21% intended to do so in the next 30 days.

That result goes along with another recent survey from Phoenix Marketing, which found that more than half (60%) of advisers reported experiencing more contact than usual with their clients (see “Advisers Report More Client Contact through Recession”).

Other actions that some affluent investors are taking, according to Phoenix Marketing:

• investing in mutual fund’s rather than individual securities (34% have already done so; 12% intended to do so in the next 30 days);
• increasing share of portfolio CDs (25% have already done so; 13% intended to so);
• dispersing investment accounts among multiple firms to max FDIC insurance coverage (18% have done so; 7% intended to do so).
  

How do affluent investors gauge the health of the U.S. economy? One-third said they rely on market averages, and a quarter use the unemployment rate.

The study, conducted in May, surveyed 757 affluent investors ages 35 to 64 in the U.S.