Spectrem’s Ethnic Segmentation Series looks at investors from three different yet largely populated ethnic segments in the United States – African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic.

The first of the quarterly reports looks at investors’ financial attitudes and concerns, with a look toward finding what makes investors of different ethnicities tick?

The different ethnic segments see different factors in their lives that led to their current wealth level. For instance, 71 percent of Asians considered “frugality’’ as a reason they obtained their wealth, while only 58 percent of African-Americans felt that was a factor. Forty-eight percent of African-Americans, however, credited decisions made by their financial advisor for obtaining wealth, while only 39 percent of Hispanics and 28 percent of Asians felt that was involved.

Almost every Hispanic investor surveyed (96 percent) credited “hard work’’ for their success, compared to 91 percent of African-Americans and 86 percent of Asians.

In terms of their relationship with financial advisors, almost half of all Asians don’t have one. Forty-six percent of Asians consider themselves “self-directed’’ investors, meaning they do all the legwork themselves and do not use an advisor for any purpose. Less than one-third of Hispanic investors do it themselves, while 33 percent are advisor-assisted or advisor-dependent, a high rate of advisor usage among the ethnic segments.

 

 

For more information on Spectrem Group's Ethnic Segmentation series, click here