Think your millionaire clients aren't e-media savvy? Think again

Financial advisers who have been hanging onto the notion that their millionaire clients would prefer sit-down meetings instead of e-mails or text messages may need to think again. According to a Fidelity Investments survey released today, 85% of millionaires use or are willing to use electronic media, such as e-mail, social-media sites and text messaging, compared with only 43% of financial advisers and brokers. Thirty-four percent of the millionaires surveyed said they use social media professionally — with 28% citing LinkedIn, while only 16% of advisers and brokers said they used the professional networking site. Two-thirds of millionaires surveyed said they would like to use electronic media with their advisers. The results of this survey should serve as a wakeup call to advisers,” said Scott Dell'Orfano, executive vice president of sales and relationship management at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. “Localized, high-touch, personalized services has been the mantra of advisers,” he said. “They don't want to remove themselves by communicating through technology.” And it's not just young millionaires who want to be able to text with their advisers. The average age of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity was 56. Still, brokers at many large firms haven't been able to use networking sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter because of compliance concerns. Just this month, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC became the first major Wall Street firm to allow its financial advisers to use LinkedIn and Twitter. “There have been a lot of advisers, brokers and clients who want to jump on the social-media bandwagon,” said Patrick Burns, a lawyer specializing in compliance matters. “Firms are going to have to adapt and adjust to the new reality.”