What do you call the emerging-wealth folks with more than $500,000 and less than $2 million in net worth?Cerulli Associates has tabbed them “leftovers,” and the Boston-based research firm says this group is largely ignored by financial advisers. Cerulli says in a MarketWatch story that even though this group represents nearly $8 billion in wealth and 10% of total U.S. households, they are not being offered products that directly fit their needs or being directly services.
The firm says, however, that these lower-net-worth individuals “prefer a more anonymous service model,” as opposed to their high-net worth peers who are “more human-oriented.” To prove its under-servicing point, MarketWatch notes that Merrill Lynch has a policy that automatically forwards customers with under $100,000 to an online account that is serviced by a call-in center. Other firms have similar policies, says MarketWatch, of increasing the service as the size of the account grows.
