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December 13, 2019 at 01:45 PM
(Photo: Shutterstock)
It will come as no surprise that health concerns weigh on Americans across the wealth spectrum, millionaires included.
Fidelity Investments’ most recent Millionaire Outlook Study, which analyzed the investing attitudes and behaviors of some 2,000 households, found that concerns about health were the main source of stress for both millionaires and their less-wealthy counterparts.
Stressed millionaires report a greater disconnect with their financial advisor, the study finds.
“There are a lot of stressors in life that are universal and difficult to predict, like health issues or the state of the economy,” David Canter, head of the registered investment advisor segment at Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions, said in a statement.
“Regardless of net worth, proactively planning and managing financial resources can help alleviate stress. Advisors need to be thinking broadly about how financial planning can impact clients of all asset levels to help historically underserved segments have access to the benefits of financial advice and planning.”
The survey was conducted in August among 2,026 investors, including 1,102 millionaires, the sample provided by Brookmark, a third-party firm not affiliated with Fidelity.
The survey results showed that more than one-third of both non-millionaire and millionaire investors had health-related concerns, which accounted for the largest proportion of their overall stress across the four areas of total well-being included in the study: health, financial, work and life.
In terms of health, millionaires worried, first, about their weight, then their own health and then their family’s health; for non-millionaires, weight was first, followed by their family’s health and their own health.
Of the millionaires who reported higher levels of stress, fewer than half said they felt confident about their health, compared with 86% of those who reported lower stress levels.
Forty-five percent of millionaires who reported higher stress levels expressed concern about paying for health care, versus just 7% of their non-stressed counterparts, and 20% cited planning for these expenses in retirement as one of their top investment goals, versus 12% of the more confident contingent.
Fidelity noted that several other factors may be contributing to investors’ stress: their aggregate outlook on the economy, stock market, value of real estate, and consumer and business spending.
Optimism about the 12-month outlook came in at the lowest level since the Fidelity Millionaire Outlook Confidence Index began in 2006; year over year, it fell 14 points.
