According to Spectrem’s report Affluent Market Insights 2014, there is a relationship between wealth level and advisor usage.  Basically, the more money an investor has, the more likely they will use a financial advisor.

The AMI showed that there were more UHNW investors in 2013 than in 2012, with an increase from 1.14 million in 2012 to 1.24 million in 2013. There were only 840,000 in 2008 UHNW investors when the recession first hit.

When looking at Millionaires, just above eighty percent (81 percent) used a financial advisor in 2013, an increase of six percent from 2012’s report of 75 percent. Thirty-five percent of Millionaires used full service brokers for assistance, and 17 percent used an independent financial planner.

Among Mass Affluent investors, nearly seventy percent (69 percent) used a financial advisor in some way, an increase of four percent from the year before.

Spectrem research shows how much investors believe their advisors deserve credit for their financial success. Investors were asked to rate where the credit should lie between themselves and their advisors on a sliding scale from 0 (themselves) to 100 (their advisor).

UHNW investors averaged at 39.74, still giving the most credit to themselves, but still showing more credit to their advisors than Millionaires (39.16) or Mass Affluent investors (37.19).

As the economy gets better, so do advisors. The approval rating for advisors went up among all wealth segments from 2012 to 2013, with UHNW increasing from 73 to 80 percent approval, Millionaires slightly increasing from 72 to 73 percent and Mass Affluent climbing above the 70 percent mark to 72 percent from 69 percent in 2012.

 

Click here for more information about Spectrem Group's Affluent Market Insights Report