Older Millionaires Get Tech-Savvy

Who’s that silver fox sending a text message or reading an e-book on his tablet? Well, if you look closely enough you might find out it’s another of a growing number of seniors who are tech-savvy millionaires.

A recent study shows that wealthy boomers and seniors are really buying into the tech world, becoming fast adopters of smartphones and tablets and other cool gadgets. According to new research from Spectrem Group, these aging millionaires are using “smart phones, tablets and e-readers for everything from talking, texting and emailing to paying bills and checking financial account information.”

See also: Nearly 3 in 10 Mass Affluent Investors Use a Tablet to Correspond with Advisors

And that’s not all. They’re digging the social scene, too, spending time on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

According to the report:

• 49 percent of millionaire investors who are 65 and older and 59 percent of those who are 55 to 65 use Facebook.
• As a group, ultra high net worth (UHNW) investors, who have the average age of 67, lead among wealthy investors in the use of YouTube. More than one-quarter, or 27 percent, of UHNW investors use it compared to 23 percent of millionaire investors, 85 percent of whom are 55 or older.
• 24 percent of Mass Affluent investors, who have at least $100,000 in net worth, use YouTube.

As these numbers show, the use of mobile technologies increases with wealth. Some additional key findings in this wealthy tech study include:

• Almost 50 percent of the UHNW use a smartphone and 50 percent also have a tablet or an e-reader.
• Smartphone usage is dominated by talking or e-mail, with approximately eight percent of usage dedicated to financial activities.
• Only 6 percent currently use their smartphone as a payment device, but 48 percent are somewhat to very likely to consider using their phone in this manner in the future.
• The most popular financial apps for tablets provide access to personal account information, followed by the ability to look at balances in one place from multiple providers.
• Social media usage is driven somewhat by occupation, with Business Owners showing greater usage of Twitter and Senior Corporate Executives using Facebook and LinkedIn to a greater extent.
• Twenty-six percent of the UHNW are still working, while 14 percent are semi-retired and 60 percent are fully retired.
• The most popular occupation or former occupation among the UHNW is Senior Corporate Executive, followed by Managers and then Entrepreneur/Business Owners. These three groups make up over a third of the total.
• Over 50 percent are limited in their usage of advisors, being either Self-Directed or Event-Driven, while 31 percent identify themselves as Advisor-Assisted and 13 percent are Advisor-Dependent.

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