High-net-worth millennial investors are drawn to noncorrelated and nontraditional investments because they have seen so much volatility in the stock market during their lives, says a U.S. Trust executive.
Millenials are also exceptionally altruistic and want to change the world with their investments, according to Chris Heilmann, U.S. Trust chief fiduciary executive.
These and other trends in high-net-worth investing identified in the U.S. Trust 2014 Insights on Wealth and Worth have implications for advisors, according to Heilmann and Keith Banks, U.S. Trust president.
The study included 680 investors with $3 million or more in investable assets and found that 46 percent of those had experienced some disruption in the traditional family either through divorce or death of a spouse or some blended family. A major factor advisors have to deal with today is that families no longer come in the same shapes as they did in the past and as families change, investing changes, the study says.
For those millennials who are in charge of investing, 75 percent said they feel the environmental and social impact of the companies they are investing in is important. Eighty one percent are interested in owning such things as real estate and timber or other tangible assets
In addition to the changing nature of millennial investing, women are becoming a growing force in investing, and advisors can no longer just address the man of the household, Banks says. “Advisors need to be cognizant that these are different times,” he says.
More than $15 trillion in high-net-worth assets will be transferred from older generations to younger ones over the next two decades, U.S. Trust says. Fifty-six percent of high-net-worth millennials are second or third generation wealth and yet only 38 percent of wealthy parents have disclosed their wealth to their children. This leaves an education gap, the study says.
One in four of high-net-worth investors feel they missed out on the bull market even though U.S. Trust feels the market is only at its midpoint, Banks says. Risk tolerance is returning with 42 percent now willing to pursue greater returns compared to 37 percent last year and 30 percent the year before. However, 20 percent of high-net-worth investors still have 25 percent or more of their portfolio in cash.
Credit is important to high-net-worth investors and credit accounts for 10 percent or more of the balance sheet for half of those with at least $10 million in investable assets, the study shows. However, only 35 percent of all respondents feel confident they can use credit wisely.
