Mass affluent market up for grabs

The group is “the most poorly served segment in terms of dedicated products and delivery channels,” according to Celent.

The mass affluent market for financial services is still up for grabs, according to a new report issued today by Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm.
Defining “mass affluent” as households with a net worth between $250,000 and $2 million, the Celent report claims the market represents 35.5 million households, or nearly one-third of total U.S. households, and is “the most poorly served segment in terms of dedicated products and delivery channels.”
The report, titled“Capturing the Opportunity in the U.S. Mass Affluent Segment,” also claims the mass affluent market is “the least risky segment for lending and insurance products.”
“Amazingly, the opportunity to capture the mass affluent is just as open as it was 20 years ago, when firms started identifying this segment as a target. No firm today has effectively captured the mass affluent,” Robert Ellis, senior vice president of Celent’s Wealth Management Group and co-author of the report, said in a statement.
“Only when a firm has delivered an entirety of an offering, complete with products, channels, brand, and marketing in a nonsiloed, customer-centric manner, will the true profit potential of the mass affluent be captured,” Isabella Fonesca, co-author of the report and a Celent senior analyst, added in the statement.