Monday, July 2, 2007

How the rich feel about mutual and hedge funds.

If you're rich, the financial services would like to know how you feel about mutual funds and a host of alternative investments. There have been several attempts to figure it out. A study by Prince and Associates, for example, suggests that the uber-rich scorn mutual funds and even exchange traded funds. In fact, they found that the richest do not invest in mutual funds at all, preferring hedge funds and direct investments in startups. dailyii.com, however, notes that the finding is at odds with a survey by the Spectrum Group that found even the wealthy don't truly "get" hedge funds, and that less than 10 percent owned one. These are not necessarily inconsistent. The top 10 percent could easily account for the bulk of individual money invested with hedge funds. But to complicate matters, Advisor Perspectives has found that, according to their database anyway, the very wealthy continue to hold mutual funds. It all comes down to how you slice the data. Interesting.

Our take on this news: Survey after survey shows what they want. There is NO pattern in the way individuals invest their funds.

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