Young Millionaires are willing to admit that inheritance and family connections played a significant role in acquiring their wealth.

A Spectrem report – 2013 Millionaire Investor: Changing Investor Attitudes and Behaviors – studied investors with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million not including primary residence.  It showed that more so than older Millionaires, young Millionaires credited inheritance and family connections as major factors in their wealth position.

Forty-four percent of Millionaires under the age of 45 said “inheritance’’ was a major wealth creation factor in their lives, a much higher ratio than the 31 percent of all Millionaires. Thirty-five percent said “family connections’’ was a factor, and the average was only 8 percent.

The young Millionaires also reported the highest percentage crediting “luck’’, at 41 percent. Forty-one percent of Millionaires aged 55 to 64 also said “luck’’ was a factor.

Young Millionaires were significantly less likely than older Millionaires to choose other wealth factors, including “hard work” (85 percent to 94 percent overall) and “frugality” (67 percent to 80 percent overall).

Young Millionaires were more pleased with the events of the last year in regards to personal finances. Seventy-two percent of Millionaires under the age of 45 said “my financial situation is better today than it was one year ago.  Only 60 percent of all Americans reported an improved financial outlook over the last year.

The optimism of youth was indicated in the report when Millionaires were asked about their national concerns. In every category, the young Millionaires expressed the least amount of concern: prolonged economic downturn (69 percent to 83 percent of all Millionaires), political environment (57 percent to 85 percent), national debt (58 percent to 80 percent) and terrorism (39 percent to 59 percent).

 Asked to select their No. 1 national concern, 22 percent of young Millionaires chose an increase in interest rates as their biggest concern, far more than the average of 6 percent among all Millionaires.