Affluent investors want lots of choices and investing advice, but not high-risk products

March, 2006

Affluent investors who use financial advisors want access to a wide range of products and services, but they don’t necessarily want innovative or high-risk offerings in their investing advice.

Spectrem research shows nearly two-thirds (62%) of the affluent want a variety of choices within categories of a broad product line. For instance, they want a choice of multiple types of mutual funds from multiple fund companies. They also may be seeking annuity-based products, separate account management or other products from their advisors as well as investing advice.

However, affluent investors are not particularly concerned whether their advisors offer innovative products or advice. In fact, interest in alternative investments, such as hedge funds, private equity and real estate, and broad market products, such as exchange-traded funds and index funds, is relatively muted at 25% and 28%, respectively.