COVID-19 has resulted in increased financial actions by consumers. Savings is on the top of the list for many with one in 5 households creating an emergency fund for the first time. This report looks at who is taking action, what they are doing, and the goals for the various segments of savers. Here are a few of the take-aways: Households whose work was affected by the COVID-19 crisis were more likely to have taken actions than households with no work disruption. Gen-X, Millennials and the New Generation have been much more active with financial responses to COVID-19 than the Silents and Boomers. We have classified savers into five segments beyond the traditional age-based categories that combine behavior, attitudes and household finances. Among the findings, "Big Savers" are the most valuable customers today, but "Aspiring Savers - High Potential" are looking to make changes in their financial lives and could be valuable over the long haul. Investment firms have the greatest reach with the Big Savers and banks have it with the Aspiring Savers - High Potential. Read more

The language of investing is complex. Despite all the efforts within the industry to simplify it and make investing concepts more easily understood, we are failing. Investors are still confused - 81% consumers lack financial fluency. This report looks at the language of investing and who does and does not understand it; how workplace plan participants are particularly challenged; and the implications of confusion and the associated opportunities. Read more

This report is exclusively for Trends Subscribers. It covers consumer trust, pricing and competitive trends by category on Inside Advice^® Grid, the framework for classifying advice and guidance experiences developed through Inside Advice^® Benchmarking, the industry's most comprehensive benchmarking of advice and guidance experiences, and extensive consumer testing. Availability for license by Selected Report subscribers is expected sometime in H1 2020. Learn more

New brokerage accounts are on the rise, more investors are trading stocks and cryptocurrencies, and environmental, social & governance (ESG) as an investment goal is growing in popularity among some very specific market segments. But, mutual fund and packaged product ownership across all wealth groups is on the decline, consumers struggle to identify their investment goals, and many are moving away from relying on financial professionals. This is especially concerning for lower asset Americans, who are at risk of missing out on creating wealth through safer, professionally managed products. This report looks at trends in online brokerage accounts and trading, the use of cryptocurrencies, investor goals & product ownership, and why getting back to basics may be good for everyone. Read more

This reports covers customer satisfaction ratings on all things important - what they want from the financial firms they do business with and their understanding of the fees they pay for products and services. Additionally, we report on the who ranks as a "Top Performer" firm and who is setting the competitive bar. This annual review of investor "wants & pricing" is one of our most highly rated research packages of the year - one that many consider to be an industry scorecard. Read more

The past year has many investors rethinking their plans. This report explores changes in target retirement ages; aspirations and reality for income replacement rates and the importance of advice; anticipated sources of retirement income for those approaching retirement compared to actual sources for those already retired; and a profile of the "Aspire to Retire by 55" group. Key Findings Include: - Even as more households want to “work full time as long as health permits,” target retirement dates are moving younger. - Ambitions for replacement rates have increased, but assets-to-income ratios show most people are still very unprepared for the end of full-time work. - Future retirees anticipate combining more sources of income than current retirees. The more income sources consumers have, the more value they see in paying for advice. - More households report participating in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. More generous matches increase overall household saving rate, especially at lower income levels. Saving into employer plans is up. - There are about 11M households in the “Aspire to Retire by 55” design target. Well positioned in some ways, these households need help to achieve this goal. Read more

As consumers want more involvement in their investment decisions, and delegation has decreased to an all-time low, consumer appetite for “seeking input from various sources” has increased to an all-time high. Those who are blending advice from financial professionals and online sources, first research online and then validate with financial professionals. This report explores the reasons for these trends and potential strategies to match these behaviors. The report also looks at the activities consumers are doing online – what is most common, what is growing, what is shrinking, and what devices (mobile vs. computer) they are choosing for specific types of information. For example, in 2020, engagement with online planning tools and calculators declined at the same time we are experiencing a rise in use of mobile across the board. Behaviors by wealth level and age group suggest on-line planning tools may not be keeping up with usage trends in technology. Read more

The Hearts & Wallets Attitudes & Sentiment report annually tracks key consumer sentiments, goals and attitudes that are relevant to financial services firms and their strategic decisions. This year, we examine the impact of COVID-19 – how the initial shock and ongoing reactions have changed the consumer mindset and what it means for savings, investing and advice solutions. One in 3 consumers say “the COVID-19 crisis has changed their attitudes towards saving and investing,” and firms should provide appropriate outreach to this group. Nationally, since the onset of the crisis, consumer optimism regarding their financial futures has bounced back for some but not others. Many are setting goals again but are focused on the short term. And, receptivity to advice is warming with a renewed interest in banking, savings solutions and packaged products. Read more

This second COVID-19 tracking supplement examines the pandemic’s impact to health, work, saving investing and advice behaviors, connecting to core fields from Investor Quantitative™ Database. Over 29 million households have 1 or more partners out of work, which has significantly impact consumer’s finances and attitudes. As a result of the extraordinary levels of unemployment, report findings are weighted for unemployment, in addition to age and assets, to ensure that the voices of the unemployed were counted adequately in the national figures. The report covers financial goals, economic concerns, attitudes toward financial advice and advisors, sources of advice, spending, saving, financial responses, and consumer attitudes toward public policy. Read more

This special tracking appendix examines the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on U.S. consumer finances, attitudes and behaviors. This just-fielded data reveals impacts by generation, asset level, and work and health status. The analysis looks at income and spending cut-backs, changes in goals and financial actions, changes to investment mix and more. Read more

Understand financial pain points that can shape products and services to support action taking. This report analyzes the level of difficulty consumers have with key financial tasks, rates of seeking help, and actions consumers are taking and plan to take in the future. Read more

Get the full picture on consumer goals, sentiments, concerns and attitudes toward saving and investing to guide strategy and inform decisions. Read more

This report examines key drivers of investor trust 2019, highlighting opportunities for firms to increase low trust and further enhance existing trust. This trust roadmap is build upon a regression analysis that assessed over 90 variables as possible influencers of trust in specific saving, investing and advice relationships. Read more

This report analyzes U.S. household asset allocation, product types, online brokerage and awareness of asset managers. Learn about the dynamics between high cash and investor confusion. The last third of the report taps into 30 metrics that track asset managers to reveal consumer-reported awareness of shareholder awareness and top performer asset managers. Read more

This report analyzes household involvement in inheritances, incidence of small funded trust accounts and impact on a variety of attitudes and wants. Find out what types of family conversations about money are occurring and who is driving them. See quantifiable benefits of partner retirement planning. Read more

This report provides actionable insights and greater visibility into transaction dynamics both at origin and destination for a full picture of opportunities and potential threats. Transactions covered include new deposits in new accounts, transfers, rollovers and cashouts from employer plans. Life events and the factors motivating money movement are analyzed. Read more

Trends covered in this report include changes in the age of stopping work, working part-time, the role of real estate as both a big spending type and an asset. The importance of human capital and blending income sources comes to life in a pre/post-retirement spending analysis, metrics on changes in consumer saving behaviors, and discussion of shortcomings of traditional retirement preparedness metrics. Read more

This section of the IQ Database covers the foundation of household finance. It begins with employment, since the ability to deploy human capital for income in labor markets is the foundation of wealth accumulation for most people. Written for industry practitioners rather than academics, this report uses national statistics to set context, analyzes lifestage, investable asset segments, and specific groups where appropriate, such as households with one or more partners working "gigs," and includes commentary on implications for saving, investing and advice. This report covers spending, by type, and saving, to complete the picture of household budget. Statistics and analysis of debt and real estate round out the picture of consumer household finance. Read more

This report covers 25+ "wants," or the service dimensions consumers expect from their stores, and 10 wants from financial professionals, nationally, by lifestage and investable asset segments. Satisfaction ratings for the 20+ biggest stores result in Top Performer designations for those stores who outperform the pack. This report covers consumer awareness of pricing, pricing mechanisms, and to the extent possible, amounts as perceived by consumers, showing that flat fee pricing is gaining momentum in specific areas. Grounded in the belief that consumers should be able to buy what they want (hence the name of this section of IQ Database), this report also includes a fascinating analysis of how consumers who pay financial professionals fees differ from consumers who receive "free" advice. Read more

This report uses the traditional three-point spectrum from self-direction to delegation as a springboard for a deeper examination of consumer behaviors using 15 sources of advice. The analysis at reliance on each source reveals that stated preference and behavior often diverge. The findings quantify "hybrid" users of advice, meaning consumers who use both online and people, tracking growth nationally, and provides current statistics for 36 cohorts of age and investable asset groups. Digging deeper into use of technology, the report tracks 10+ online activities, by computer and mobile. This report analyzes reliance on 15 sources of saving and investment information and advice, and 13 online activities by device. This year's report includes a special section that analyzes the connection between mobile payments and use of mobile for saving, investing and advice. Read more

This report begins with consumer sentiment, including feelings about financial future, perceived experience with investing, and risk tolerance, analyzing trends over time and by lifetage and investable asset segments. The report analyzes 14 goals ranging all aspects of life financial and investing goals, and 12 financial and political concerns. The analysis of current year results for 17 of the 43 attitudes tracked at different points over the 10-year history of IQ Database, covers employment and retirement, service-pricing, engagement, saving and spending, banking and insurance. Particular focus is given to crosstabs and competitive analysis of "I understand what a financial advisor does," a new attitude on debt and the frequently requested refresh of the attitude "I like to bank and invest at the same firm." Read more

This report analyzes current year difficulty with 20 of the 26 tasks tracked at different points over the 10-year history of the IQ Database, highlighting the most important observations by lifestage and investable assets groups. These same tasks are tracked as reasons for seeking help, where the difference between the difficulty and seeking help is the advice gap. This report also examines selected tasks by store, providing interesting competitive insights that provide inspiration for further individualized competitive analysis in Hearts & Wallets interactive software IQ Dataminer. Read more

This report analyzes consumer awareness and behaviors for both asset class allocations and ownership of investment product types. It includes trended data on penetration rates of different product types as well as consumer-reported estimates for how much of their portfolios are in each product type. This report covers online brokerage ownership and consumer-report trading behaviors. The final third of this report analyzes consumer-reported ownership by mutual fund manager, including consumers who are sure they are shareholders in each manager's products as well as consumers who think they might be, and then profiles households who report they are "definitely" shareholders of Fidelity, Vanguard, American Funds, J.P. Morgan and Franklin Templeton mutual funds. Read more

Hone competitive strategies and product development with a multidimensional view of money movement. Go beyond firm proprietary system data to gain greater visibility into transaction number and activity – both completed and being considered – for new and existing relationships. Identify transaction movement sources and destinations, amounts, timing and motivating factors by firm. Read more

Gain insight into yet-to-retire consumers and their expectations for work and source of income in contrast to Post-Retirees. Learn what really matters in advice, the role of employer-sponsored plans, and ways to measure progress toward retirement. Learn more

Gain a complete understanding of consumer wealth with this report. Learn actionable insights into the top consumer needs in household finance -- from a thirst for capital liquidity to funding education, healthcare and unexpected expenses -- to shape advice and guidance, new products and go-to-market strategies. Learn more

Understand customer success metrics for the top investment, banking and retirement plan firms, or “stores,” most often cited by their customers. Learn which customers are using multiple stores - an increasingly common trend and the overall increase in consumer trust. This report measures customer trust and loyalty, including the Hearts & Wallets Loyalty Predictor – a combination of intent to invest more and the intent to recommend measures. Learn more

Dramatic shifts are occurring in consumer beliefs around pricing. Learn what consumers say they want and are willing to pay for in saving and investment. Understand the level of importance consumers place on 25 service dimension attributes and three pricing dimensions, plus how the top 23 firms cited most often perform. Learn more

Understand the preferred decision-making process, the sources of advice and information for U.S. consumer groups, the blending of digital and live professional advice, and frequency of interaction with sources of advice and information. Learn more

Identify the most pressing financial pain points that different groups of consumers face, the reasons they seek help, and the actions they have taken and plan to take. Understand why younger consumers are struggling the most and the opportunities to create solutions. Learn more

Gain insight into the general sentiment, key concerns, financial goals, investing experience and general investing/savings attitudes for consumers. Learn more

Understand awareness and ownership of investment products and asset allocation for consumer groups across the U.S. This report also analyzes awareness of asset management firms and consumer use of online brokerage firms. Learn more

Identify the latest trends around active and passive investing, the consumers who see the most value in active management and why. This report also identifies profiled targets of consumers based on their allocation to active or passive, types of impact investments owned and which ones they are likely to own in the future. Learn more

Get the latest on consumer income plans for retirement: their plan status, inspirations and components. This report serves as a roadmap to help firms transition to goals-based wealth management using a consumer-oriented mindset. Learn more

Use this bottom-up empirical framework to connect consumer behaviors and wants to specific consumer transactions. This report measures transactions by action phase, type (cashout, rollover, transfer excluding rollover, new deposits), source and destination firm – plus the relationship type. Learn more

Put the complete picture of consumer wealth at your fingertips. With this report, you’ll gain insight into the needs of the retail investor household through data on employment, income, spending, saving, real estate and debt, and how non-traditional wealth components play a role in building wealth. Learn more

Gain insight into the consumer’s visions and realities leading up to and in retirement. This report tracks consumer’s plans and retirement realities, anticipated and actual income replacement rates, and income sources. Also included is the Hearts & Wallets Retirement Reachability Ratio.™ Learn more

Understand customer success metrics for the top investment, banking and retirement plan firms, or “stores,” most often cited by their customers. The report measures customer loyalty, including the Hearts & Wallets Score – a combination of intent to invest more and intent to recommend measures. Learn more

Learn what investors want and are willing to pay for. This analysis provides data on the level of importance that consumers place on 25 service dimension attributes and three pricing dimensions, plus how the top 24 firms most often cited by consumers perform. Learn more

Set in the context of a changing competitive environment, this overview describes Hearts & Wallets resources, use cases, and ways to collaborate on making saving, investing and advice solutions more consumer-centric. Learn more