America’s Wealthiest Differ On Finances

Though they’re all some version of “Affluent,” the three categories of America’s wealthiest citizens do not relate to their money in the same way.

According to Volume 3 of The Martini Report (“An In-Depth Perspective on Affluents and Finance”), released yesterday (June 29) by Martini Media in collaboration with Ipsos MediaCT, Affluents’ variations in their approaches to wealth management tend to line up with differences in age range.

To gather its results, the study analyzed the online behavior of three segments of the U.S. Affluent Market: the Hyper Affluent (the 3 percent of Americans with at least $250,000 in annual household income), the Mass Affluent (one quarter of the population with an income in the $100,000–$249,000 range) and the Emerging Affluent (aged 18–39, whose income falls in the $75,000–$249,000 range).

Among highlighted findings in a press release, the report bears out that only 69 percent of Hyper Affluent millennials remain loyal to financial companies they’ve worked with previously (compared to 80 percent of older members of that elite category), with many turning to newer and innovative, often tech-based, firms.

Additionally, only 33 percent of Emerging Affluents report to hold trust in financial advisers (compared to nearly double that percentage among the Hyper Affluent), opting instead in large part to take a DIY approach to managing their finances.

In general, digital media stood as something of a unifier for Affluents, with a majority of all three categories reporting to be more strongly influenced by it than traditional forms in making their financial decisions.

“For Affluents, managing and growing their wealth has always been a high priority, but the most surprising finding of our third Martini Report was how differently each key segment approaches financial decisions,” said Karen Ring, director of market research and insights at Martini Media, in the release. “While millennials are just starting to formulate their investment strategy and prefer to make financial decisions independently through the use of digital resources, their older counterparts place their trust in established financial institutions and are most concerned about estate planning, and saving enough for retirement and their children’s education.”

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