Wealthy Investors Worry About Digital Security but Fail to Protect Assets

U.S. Trust recently reported that high-net-worth consumers are increasingly concerned about their digital financial security.

This is not surprising, and they aren’t the only ones. A regulatory filing by JPMorgan Chase last week showed that hackers stole data on 76 million households and 7 million small business accounts at Chase in June.

According to a New York Times report, the breach wasn’t discovered until a month after it had occurred and will take many months to set right.

U.S. Trust reported that although 69% of wealthy respondents in a recent survey were concerned about their digital financial security, only 33% had made a change to protect their assets.

The survey encompassed 680 adults, of whom about a third each had investable assets of $3 million to $5 million, $5 million to $10 million and $10 million or more.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents were men and 43% women. Thirteen percent were millennials, 22% Gen Xers, 45% boomers and 20% aged 69 and older. The survey included 132 business owners and 107 senior executives.

The survey data showed that 76% of wealthy individuals believed their online reputation affected their private and public lives, and the importance of managing their reputation was apparent to both millennial respondents and boomers.

Forty-five percent of those surveyed said online reputation was most important to one’s career or business, 21% stressed its importance to personal and family relationships and 10% cited status in the community.

Women and younger respondents were more likely to say online reputation was important to personal relationships. Thirty-six percent of women vs. 21% of men said they had made changes to protect their online reputation.