Hearts & Wallets

This Explore Qualitative™ report looks at how consumers combine different financial advice resources in managing their money — most often a combination is used. As observed in Hearts & Wallets’ 2024 focus groups, only about 1 in 5 “fully advised” participants rely on a single advisor. A Few Key Report Takeaways: ·      Know which categories your advice experiences compete in. ·      Differentiate pricing across categories to inspire shopping for advice. ·      Expect “bifurcating” — where consumers use advisors for some money and manage some on their own. Don’t associate bifurcating with “play money.” ·      Establish policies and procedures that empower customers to switch advice experiences without having to transfer assets to another store. Request a preview today - https://lnkd.in/gXmc9x7U Trends™ Subscribers: Log into the portal to view this report!

The financial services industry has been working for years to get annuities into retirement plans – and the good news is that people appear to like that idea. The bad news is that they like annuities for the sake of other people – they don’t personally want them. That is according to results from Hearts & Wallets' qualitative focus group report on "In-Plan Retirement Income Solutions" that included comments from 70 people ages 45 to 74 with at least $500,000 in assets to invest.   “The No. 1 thing people liked about it [annuities] was this nostalgia for the bygone era of pensions. But, they didn’t see it was something they would use … they said the target was less savvy investors.” - Laura Varas, CEO & Founder of Hearts & Wallets Read the full article featured in InvestmentNews: https://lnkd.in/gh7kkBDY

Hearts & Wallets’ report, Portrait™ of U.S. Household Wealth 2024: Sizing the Growth Prospects for Older Households and Categories of Advice, is featured in this article. According to the report, U.S. household growth will be the fastest among households age 75-plus. By 2033, 23 million households will be aged 75-plus, up from 15.8 million today and only 12.6 million in 2011. And by 2033, 12.8 million households will be over age 80, and 5.6 million will be over age 85. Overall, in 2033, 9% of households will be over age 80. This aging U.S. population has implications for wealth transfer, and our report shows that many households want to discuss it ahead of time. “The appetite to talk about wealth transfer is present across all asset ranges,” said Laura Varas, Hearts & Wallets’ CEO and founder. “Firms can develop approaches to help older people initiate the conversation with potential heirs. The desire is there, but it is sometimes difficult for family to talk about money.” Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/ein_HrQ8

ICYMI: Our "In-Plan Retirement Income Solutions" report is now available. This qualitative report is sourced from our June 2024 focus group series. We observed consumer reactions to "In-Plan Retirement Income Solutions," which are target date retirement funds in employer-sponsored plans that have an option to allocate up to 30% of the account balance to an annuity starting at age 55, and providing a stream of lifetime income at retirement. This is a good report for those focused on retirement income solutions, guaranteed income, and the employer sponsored retirement plan business. Request a preview: https://lnkd.in/gt25ER7b #RetirementIncome #InPlanSolutions #GuaranteedIncome #RetirementPlanning #EmployerSponsoredPlans #LifetimeIncome #AnnuityOptions #FinancialWellness #RetirementStrategies #FocusGroupInsights #IncomeForLife #RetirementTrends #WealthPlanning #FinancialResearch

More key findings from our latest report on "Pain Points & Actions 2024: Today’s Top Advice Gaps & the Customer Loyalty Connection" featured here:

More Americans are seeking help for financial tasks, often with financial professionals, although advice gaps still exist. An advice gap, is defined as U.S. households that found a financial task very difficult and have not sought help in the past 12 months. At the national level, the biggest advice gaps in dollar terms nationally are estate planning, “handling market volatility emotionally,” Roth conversion, buy/sell specific securities, balancing goals and RMDs.   “We’ve been doing a lot of what we call consistency testing and some very venerable firms that think they’re giving really deep and broad advice during a full-service model, one third of their customers say ‘I don’t get any advice and service’," said Laura Varas, CEO Hearts & Wallets. Read more on our research findings featured in this InvestmentNews article. https://lnkd.in/gTEJn-ri #FinancialAdvice #AdviceGap #EstatePlanning #MarketVolatility #RothConversion #FinancialGoals #RMDs #WealthManagement #FinancialPlanning #InvestmentAdvice #ClientExperience #FinancialWellbeing #HeartsAndWallets #FinancialServices

Hearts & Wallets found that 42 percent of rollovers are staying with their employer-sponsored plan, and 18 percent are moving to the new employer’s plan – the largest percentage remaining at recordkeepers since 2010. Are you overlooking a potential substantial amount of new business right in your clients’ workplace? Read more in this article in InvestmentNews featuring Hearts & Wallets research. https://lnkd.in/eXr9nv4u

This will serve as a public service announcement to the financial advisors, wealth managers, and rias I work with: In contrast to the common focus on inheritances by Millennials from Baby Boomers, most wealth transfers over the next 10 years will go to Generation X from the Silent Generation, according to research firm Hearts & Wallets’ “Portrait of U.S. Household Wealth 2024.” Hearts & Wallets’ report, released Wednesday, July 3rd noted that the largest cohort of households (26.3 million homes) is homes with inhabitants younger than 35 years old and with a combined $2.2 trillion investable assets. That is actually a relatively small amount of assets when compared with the Silent Generation (those born from 1928 through 1945), made up of 10.5 million households and holding $11.2 trillion in assets. Hearts & Wallets predicted the Silent Generation will see a decline of 7.4 million households to 3.1 million over the next decade. Additional details of the report and additional comments from Laura Varas, CEO & Founder of Hearts & Wallets can be found in this recent PlanAdvisor post: https://lnkd.in/eKBEPZyU #genx #genz #boomers #financialadvisors #wealthmanagers

📢 TRENDS™ SUBSCRIBER BRIEFING: Biggest Financial Pain Points and Advice Gaps This briefing looks at which financial activities consumers find difficult, which consumer segments find specific activities difficult, and where the biggest advice gaps are. 🗓️ Thursday, June 20  🕛 12 PM ET / 11 AM CT / 9 AM PT Log into the portal to register now! #Finance #TrendsBriefing #ConsumerInsights #FinancialAdvice

The number of relationships consumers have with saving and investing firms continues to climb. With 1 in 4 households holding assets at 4 firms, average share of wallet (SOW) has fallen to 37%, down from 45% in 2020.   The industry leaders for average SOW are Ameriprise (51%), Edward Jones (49%), and Fidelity (47%). As competition for SOW intensifies, becoming your customers' primary store is growing in importance. See more in our newly released report, "Stores & Success Metrics 2024: As Banks Acquire Relationships, the Race for Primacy and Loyalty Is On." Request a report preview today!