SEI released the second part of its 2015 Futurewealth research on Thursday, identifying how frequently high-net-worth investors want to communicate with their advisors and what they want to talk about.
The paper, "Hanging in the Balance: Conversations With the Futurewealthy," is based on research conducted with Scorpio Partnership and NPG Wealth Management.
The first report from the Futurewealth series established that the "futurewealthy," a group of more than 3,100 global investors with an average net worth of $2.7 million, have been working for more than 10 years with a single point of contact at their wealth management firm, and that they tend to be more satisfied than clients who have worked with multiple people throughout their time with the firm.
However, the report also found that clients believe the primary responsibility of that relationship manager is to improve their financial situation, and to provide financial education and market updates.
"Rather than simply having a friendly face at the company, the Futurewealthy are intent on having a relationship manager who can help them with their core objective: wealth creation," the report says.
The latest release found that futurewealthy clients want to hear from their relationship manager 11 times a year, while limiting contact with other specialists to seven times a year. Although they value their relationship manager more highly, they still want access to experts: about half want either temporary or full access to experts, particularly in lending solutions, hedge funds and estate planning services.
As the proportion of the assets held at the firm increases, clients were more likely to want to focus their communication with their relation manager. Almost 60% of clients with at least 75% of their assets at the firm wanted to communicate with that person only, and 22% wanted periodic access to specialists. Of those who had less than a quarter of their assets at the firm, just 9% wanted to work with the relationship manager only. Twelve percent said they would prefer a digital platform, and 46% wanted periodic access to specialists.
