Assessing the Behavior of Individual Investors and their Financial Advisors

Posted by | Sourabh Bajaj

Objective:

A leading multinational professional services company wanted to study the wealth management market of APAC. Their objective was to understand the current behavior and needs of individual investors. The needs of financial advisors who provide financial/investment advice and/or planning services to HNWI or UHNWI.

High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI) are those who have at least US$1 million in financial assets, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables. Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals (UHNWI) are those who have at least US$30 million in financial assets, excluding primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables.

Approach:

We assisted the client in drafting the questionnaire and were in discussion with the client at very early stages, understanding the key topics to be covered, laying down the different sections of the survey, and defining the questions within each section.

• The survey was programmed in Confirmit and fielded in 10 countries, with a total of 3400 individual investors (mix of Mass Affluents, Affluents, HNWIs, and UHWNIs) and 580 financial advisors participating in the research.
• Hard quotas were applied for both the segments i.e., individual investors and financial advisors on country target and wealth bands as per client’s requirements.
• The results were presented in the form of pivot tables/charts applying various cuts for both the segments.
• The Results for some questions were shared in the form of average/mean tables for ease of analysis and to draw comparisons.

We were in regular engagement with the client for sharing fieldwork updates, observations on the data, and discussing the next steps over the weekly calls.

Outcome:

The research results outlined different assets where the investors have invested their wealth. Their requirements came from financial advisors, and they featured a variety of touchpoints. Advisors also provide different types of advisory services to investors for digital assets and ESG investment, according to the findings.

The quantitative surveys with financial advisors outlined their satisfaction with their firm. Financial advisors were well-versed in their clients’ requirements, weekly activities, and capabilities. These included the use of several digital tools to enable their role and different activities along with their plans to assist their clients with digital assets & ESG investments

Tags: advisors, Asset Management, ESG, Financial, Financial Services, investments, investor