Wealth + Apathy = OpportunityWealth + Apathy = Opportunity

John Churchill

The good news for high-net-worth hunters: A large subset of affluent clients — self-directed investors — tend to be nonplussed by their current advisory relationship. The bad news: Inertia has a strong pull on this group.

According to a recent report from The Spectrem Group of Chicago, self-directed affluent clients (those with over $500,000 in investable assets) make up about a third of the high-net-worth market. But many of these do-it-yourself types are apathetic about the advisory services they receive. Twenty-one percent cited “no reason” for staying with their current financial advisor, and almost half said they would not change anything about their current providers.

Assuming the self-directed types want any financial guidance at all — a big assumption, admittedly — advisors with strong high-net-worth capabilities “are in a position to poach these clients with relative ease,” says Catherine McBreen, managing director at Spectrem.

One force pulling against this: inertia. Forty-eight percent of the self-directed types have been with their current advisor for a decade or longer.