Welcome to my new blog, the companion for my column in Investment Advisor also called The Affluentialist. Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary of English tells us “affluential” is an adjective combining the words “affluent” and “influential” and simply means ‘rich and powerful.’
I’ll be updating this blog frequently to help you keep tabs on items that are of critical value to your business—including actionable research, developing trends, and outside expert analysis—in particular, as it pertains to the high-net-worth client.
The numbers are clear. By the year 2010, 10% of America’s households –more than 11 million families—will have a net worth of $1 million or more, investable assets of more than $500,000, and increasingly complex financial lives. Not since the baby boom generation transformed retirement planning a decade ago have we seen a “pig in a python” like today’s emerging affluent middle-class. We’re in for a “wealth boom.” They are rich (the top 10% of American wealth accounts for more than $30 trillion in assets) and they are powerful—but not the conventional stereotype of power as a mysterious, shadowy force. Their power comes from their numbers. Eleven million families have enormous influence on everything from commerce to society to government and politics to the environment. Read the rest of this entry »
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