Wealthy Investors Increase Use of Social Media and Mobile Technology

A growing number of wealthy investors are using smart phones for talking, texting, and emailing, and are spending more time on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Twitter. This is according to new research from the Spectrem Group, a strategic consulting and market research firm specializing in the affluent and retirement markets.

Wealthy investors have been especially quick to embrace tablets, as illustrated by these numbers:

• 34% of Mass Affluent investors, who have at least $100,000 in net worth, not including their primary residence--nearly double from the 16% in June, 2011
• 37% of Millionaire investors, with at least $1 million in net worth, compared to 20% in June, 2011 and 5% in December, 2010
• 41% of Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) investors, with at least $5 million in assets, compared to 20% in June, 2011 and 5% in December, 2010

"Not surprisingly, younger wealthy investors have adopted social media and mobile technologies more quickly and in greater numbers than older affluent investors, as have senior corporate executives and business owners compared to other professions. But use is increasing at all ages and occupations," notes George H. Walper, Jr., president of Spectrem.

• Aside from talking and texting, wealthy investors spend more time using their tablets for tasks such as paying bills and accessing financial account information than smart phones. But computers remain king, at least for now:
• Mass Affluent investors spend 9.4 hours a week on their phones, not talking or texting, compared to 11.9 hours on their tablets and 22.8 on computers per week.
• Millionaire investors spend just under 10 hours on their phones versus more than 12 hours on their tablets and 23 hours on computers per week
• UHNW investors spend an average of 7 hours on their smart phones, 12 hours on their tablets and nearly 24 hours on computers per week

"What could tip the balance to mobile devices? More relevant applications, especially finance-related ones," says Walper. "At the top of the wealthy investors' app wish-list is the ability to aggregate their financial information from multiple sources."

Social media is making gains as well in this group, as can be seen in the following:

• 60% of Mass Affluent, 56% of Millionaire and 47% of UHNW investors are using Facebook
• 29% of Mass Affluent, 31% of Millionaire and 32% of UHNW are using LinkedIn
• 24% of Mass Affluent, 23% of Millionaire and 27% of UHNW are using YouTube
• 10% of Mass Affluent, 8% of Millionaire and 8% of UHNW are using Twitter

More insights from Spectrem Group's second-quarter investor reports are available on Spectrem's MillionaireCorner.com, including, Smart Phones Serve High Net Worth Investors and Young Millionaires Tuning Out, Logging In.

Spectrem Group conducts monthly surveys on wealthy investors on a variety of topics. In the second quarter, the company surveyed 1,428 Mass Affluent, 1,619 Millionaire, and 408 Ultra High Net Worth investors, with a focus on Mobile Technology and Social Media usage.

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By Ayo Mseka
Editor-In-Chief
Advisor Today