Increasing their wealth is a priority for more high-net-worth families than merely maintaining what they already have, according to a survey of individuals with an average household net worth of more than $20 million.
About 74 percent of those surveyed said that growth of wealth was a priority over the next five years, compared with 53 percent who said that wealth retention was a top concern, according to the survey released today by SEI Investments Co., based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
“When you have capital beyond what you need to live your daily life, you think about how to put that capital to work,” said Jeff Ladouceur, director of SEI Private Wealth Management, which generally works with families with $10 million or more in investable assets on estate planning, philanthropy and other wealth-management issues.
“They have excess wealth,” he said. “They have wealth that’s going to the next generation and to charity, and when they think about that money they start to think about growth.”
Over a longer period of the next 20 years, attitudes reversed, where about 63 percent of respondents said wealth retention was a top priority, compared with 46 percent who named growth, the survey said. That may be because more respondents will be retiring and starting to pass assets on to heirs over that period, Ladouceur said.
Market Losses
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 0.4 percent annualized since 2000 through the end of September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About 35 percent of working Americans expect to be retired by age 67, with the top reason for continuing to work being to earn enough money to live, according to a survey released Oct. 19 by Sun Life Financial Inc.
Fewer than half of respondents to the SEI survey said they had discussed their family’s wealth with children before their children were 26, while 36 percent said they had first talked about wealth before the kids turned 21.
“They don’t want the burden of the wealth,” to be placed on their children, Ladouceur said. Parents may not want to put “an expectation on someone to continue that kind of both personal and financial success.”
Leaving an inheritance was important to fewer than half of wealthy Americans, according to a survey released in April by U.S. Trust, a private wealth management unit of Bank of America Corp.
Talks With Spouses
About 51 percent of respondents said their spouses are fully involved in wealth-management decisions, and 5 percent said they haven’t spoken to their spouses at all about family money, according to the SEI survey. About 55 percent of those questioned said their children know the basics of the family’s money and haven’t been told the full details, and 28 percent said they haven’t spoken to children at all about their wealth.
SEI hired London-based Scorpio Partnership to survey more than 100 individuals online in July.
<한글 기사>
美 백만장자 "재산 더 불리는게 목표"
美 자산운용사 조사..28% "자녀에 재산 얘기하지 않는다"
51% "배우자와 재산 문제 100% 상의"
미국 백만장자의 다수는 '재산을 더 늘리는 것'이 자산 운용의 중기 목표인 것으로 나타났다.
백만장자 자산 운용 컨설팅사인 SEI 인베스트먼트는 런던 소재 스콜피오 파트너 십에 의뢰해 지난 7월 온라인으로 보유 자산 2천만달러가 넘는 미국 부호 100명 이 상을 대상으로 조사한 결과를 27일 공개하면서 이같이 밝혔다.
조사에 따르면 응답자의 74%는 향후 5년의 최대 관심이 재산을 어떻게 증식시킬 것이냐라고 밝혔다.
가진 재산을 잘 유지하는게 가장 큰 관심이라고 대답한 비율은 53%로 나타났다.
반면 향후 20년으로 기간을 늘려 질문했을 경우는 반대 상황이 돼 응답자의 46% 만 재산 증식이 가장 큰 관심이라고 밝혔다. 재산을 어떻게 유지할지가 가장 큰 관 심이라고 응답한 비율은 63%에 달했다.
조사 보고서는 20년으로 기간을 늘릴 경우 이처럼 비율이 역전된데 대해 "은퇴 와 상속 걱정이 늘어나기 때문인 것으로 분석된다"고 밝혔다.
자녀와 언제부터 재산 문제를 얘기하느냐는 질문에 50%가 조금 못미치는 응답자 가 "26세"라고 대답했다. 반면 36%는 "21세가 됐을 때"라고 응답했다.
자녀가 재산 상황을 어느 정도 아느냐는 질문에 55%가 '그렇다'고 응답한 반면 28%는 '전혀 얘기하지 않는다'고 밝혔다.
뱅크 오브 아메리카(BoA) 산하 자산관리 파트가 지난 4월 조사한 바에 따르면 미국 백만장자의 절반 미만이 '상속 문제가 중요하다'고 응답했다.
SEI 조사에서 배우자와 재산 문제를 의논하느냐는 질문에는 51%가 '100% 의논해 결정한다'고 대답했다. 반면 5%는 '배우자와 전혀 상의하지 않는다'고 밝혔다.
