Who is making the decisions around here?

That’s the question Spectrem asked wealthy investors in its Wealth Segmentation Series study Financial Behaviors and the Investor’s Mindset. More specifically, Ultra High Net Worth investors with a net worth between $5 million and $25 million were asked “Who makes the financial decisions in your household?”

That question was asked of the 85 percent of married UHNW investors. Of that group, 39 percent said financial decisions are made jointly, although 75 percent of women said the decisions are made jointly while only 28 percent of men said the same thing.

When one spouse is making the financial decisions, 59 percent of the time it is the husband making the decisions and 2 percent of the time the wife is doing so. However among UHNW investors between the ages of 49-54, the woman makes the decision in 17 percent of the households to 50 percent in which the men made the decisions.

In one income households, 30 percent of the time the financial decisions are made jointly, and all the rest of the time the male makes the financial decisions.

Of the 85 percent of all UHNW investors that are married, 83 percent said they pool all of their assets. Although two-income households were less likely to pool all assets.

Asked who is most helpful in making financial decisions (and placed on a 100-point scale from least helpful to most helpful), financial advisors got the highest score at 68.9, while spouse scored 60.1 and friends scored 25.2. Parents only came in at 14.0.

All married UHNW investors were asked about their level of agreement in financial decisions with their spouse, and overall it was rated at 86.3 on a 0-to-100 scale, with 0 indicating “no agreement” and 100 indicating “complete agreement”. However, among the youngest investors, the level of agreement was only at 71.7.

The lowest level of agreement by occupation was among Business Owners, who rated their level of agreement at 81.6.

 

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