Tiburon MP: U.S. Investable Assets Poised to Boom by 2010

Tiburon, Calif. (June 1, 2004) -- The U.S. market for consumer wealth is poised to triple by 2010, making it a great time to be in the financial advice business, according to the managing partner of a market research and strategy consulting firm based here.

Today's $17.1 trillion in investable assets will increase to over $30 trillion by 2010 due to the pending liquefaction of consumer wealth, predicted Chip Roame, managing principal of Tiburon Strategic Advisors. Roame's remarks were made at Tiburon's semi-annual CEO Summit held earlier in San Francisco. Those 108 million U.S. households also hold $7.5 trillion in retirement plan assets.

He noted that the playing field is crowded with over 400,000 financial advisors competing for a piece of the action. Banks and full-service brokerage firms, which each control near $6 trillion, currently dominate those assets.

But Roame added that independent advisors may gain substantial share in the 2000s, much as full-service brokers did in the 1980s and discount brokers did in the 1990s, by using a series of strategies -- not giving up on mutual funds, participating in the fee-accounts trend, and expanding product and service offerings to better address the needs of aging baby boomers.

Roame also predicted that wealth management services may pass investment management services in importance as boomers age, and that targeted marketing and service strategies may be increasingly critical to success and the differentiating factors.

-- WebCPA staff

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