Ninety-one percent of respondents in a survey of the Tiger 21 network of ultrahigh-net-worth members said the overall financial markets' performance last year was better than expected, but most expect weaker performance this year.
Another 8% of members surveyed said the performance was what they had expected, and only 1% thought the markets had underperformed.
Tiger 21 comprises some 220 members who collectively manage more than $20 billion in investable assets.
Survey respondents were also largely pleased with their own portfolio's 2013 performance. Sixty-two percent said their own investments had done better than expected, and 27% said they had performed as expected. Only 11% expressed disappointment about their investments' performance.
Tiger 21 members had a more somber outlook for 2014, with 66% of respondents thinking that the overall markets' performance would be worse, 26% thinking it would be about the same and just 8% expecting it to be better than last year's.
When asked which asset classes gave them most hope in 2014, the top four responses were public equities (27%), private equity (22%), real estate (18%) and hedge funds (11%).
All other asset classes received less than 10% of votes.
Tiger 21 said in a statement that this aligned with the latest asset allocation numbers for members, which had public equities, real estate and private equity in the top three positions as of the fourth quarter of 2013.
In Tiger 21's annual Member Favorites Survey, equity-themed investments also took the top spot, followed by private equity and hedge funds, with real estate close behind.
