Less than 3% of US Households have at least $3 million in financial assets, but those households own 40% of aggregate household financial assets. That was one of the insights served up by Larry Cohen, director of RFI Global’s MacroMonitor, at last week’s Kehrer Study Group on integrating the delivery of wealth management in financial institutions. Larry reminded the participants that focusing on a thin sliver of the population, competing with many others fishing in that pond, ignores the outsized opportunity that exists in the rest of a financial institution’s customer base, where there are relatively fewer competitors.
Source: RFI Global’s MacroMonitor
There are 3.9 million households with at least $3 million in assets, compared to over 139 million households with fewer assets. Among the 3.9 million, 751,000 households have financial assets of $10 million or more.
Source: RFI Global’s MacroMonitor
The less affluent households own $48 trillion in financial assets, 32% more than the wealthier households. Cohen urged the participants not to ignore the opportunities in mass affluent households as they pursue the trophy of affluent and high net worth clients.
RFI Global’s MacroMonitor is the largest, most comprehensive survey of the use of financial services by US consumers and their perceptions and preferences for products and providers. The 2022-23 MacroMonitor is the 23rd wave in this comprehensive financial services research program. Every two years since 1978, the MacroMonitor has measured US household attitudes, behaviors, channel use, demographics, ethnicity, financials, and goals. There were 5,023 interviews conducted with household financial decisionmakers, including 429 households with financial assets of $3 million or more, from December 2022 to January 2023.
The Kehrer study group of financial institution executives looking to revamp the delivery of wealth management met for the 7th year. Faced with a decline in the market share for private wealth, disruptive institutional consolidation, historic enmity between retail brokerage and Trust, and demands for better technology to enhance advisor and client experience, participants shared their visions and initiatives for optimizing the delivery of wealth management.