There are numerous ways to categorize and segment investors. They can be categorized by their investment risk tolerance, by their knowledge of financial and investment terms and procedures, or by age and generation.

They can also be categorized by the relationship they have with their advisor, from those who use an advisor sparingly if at all, all the way to those who depend entirely on their advisor for investment decisions.

Spectrem Group researches the habits, behaviors and attitudes of investors from all parts of the wealth spectrum, and segments them according to their advisor dependency. In their latest study, Using Social Media and Mobile Technology in Financial Decisions, Spectrem discovered that investors with only occasional advisor interaction are heavily involved in internet searches for articles and research information on investment products and services.

This insight offers to an advisor the opportunity to provide the information these Event-Driven investors are looking for in hopes they will not only have the specific information the investor is looking for but can attract more business from that investor in the future.

In Spectrem research, the four levels of dependency upon advisors is described as: Self-Directed (investors who make their own decisions without the assistance of an advisor), Event-Driven (investors who make most of their own decisions but use an advisor for specialized situations such as retirement planning or alternative investment research), Advisor-Assisted (investors who regularly consult with an advisor regarding investments but ultimately makes most of the final decisions) and Advisor-Dependent (investors who rely on an investment professional to make most or all investment decisions).

Event-Driven investors are of great interest to advisors as clients who could expand their usage of an advisor if shown the value in doing so. As such, Event-Driven investors are ones which advisors want to connect with in order to build a newfound reliance upon an advisor.

The Spectrem research Event-Driven investors are  not only among the most active social media users, they have the greatest interest in using social media for purposes related to finances and investing: for information gathering and for communicating with an advisor. As such, they are a viable target for social media posts related to new business.

Among Millionaires with a net worth between $1 million and $5 million, Event-Driven investors are the most likely to already follow their advisor on Twitter (28 percent, as compared to 20 percent overall), and they are much more likely to want to follow their advisor on Twitter when the advisor makes himself available via that social media site.

Event-Driven investors are more likely to look for investment and financial information on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and (of special interest to advisors) are far more likely to pay attention to financial advertisements seen on social media sites.

Thirty-nine percent of Event-Driven investors watch videos on financial websites (video presentations are a widely used manner of getting product and service information to consumers) and they are much more likely than more dependent investors to look to advisor websites for articles and research information.

Top Takeaways For Advisors

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Event-Driven investors are doing much of the hard work themselves, and only call upon advisors when they feel they need specialized assistance. But because of their predilection to use the internet heavily for research and information-gathering, advisors can perhaps find a way to connect with these investors to promote the idea of accepting professional advice more frequently.

 

©2017 Spectrem Group