Mass affluent leaving brokers, making indie advisers their top choice, Spectrem finds

After a year in which many investors lost substantial chunks of their wealth, mass affluent individuals are ditching their full-service brokers in favor of independent financial planners at a significant clip, according to a report released today. According to the Spectrem Group, only 22% of mass affluent investors — those with a net worth of $100,000 to $1 million — now rely on a broker as their primary financial adviser, down from 30% just one year ago. Independent advisers, Spectrem noted, appear to be the most immediate beneficiaries of brokers’ losses: 22% of mass affluent investors now use an independent adviser, compared with 20% in 2008. This shift represents the first time in the eight years that Spectrem has tracked this data that brokers were not the primary option for mass affluent investors. “Whether linked to perceptions of financial institutions or a need to reassess their investing, this shift coincides with a strong move toward conservative investing by the mass affluent,” George H. Walper, Jr., president of Spectrem Group, said in a statement. Spectrem polled nearly 1,500 mass affluent households in July for its report.