WEALTHY PEOPLE PREFER FAMILY OVER FANCY CARS

       Wealthy professionals and business owners aim to quadruple their assets over the next decade and are more likely to spend their riches on family than sports cars and safaris, according to a study released at the weekend.
       About 41 per cent of the 1,414 people surveyed, currently worth an average of US$2 million (Bt68 million), made money through the financial crisis and 78 per cent expect to increase their wealth in 2010, according to the study by London-based wealth management adviser-Scorpio Partnership and Standard Chartered.
       Such investors, including doctors, lawyers, architects and entrepreneurs, comprise a "global tribe" of sveral million that is often misunderstood by wealth managers, said Sebastian Dovey, Scorpio's managing partner.
       Upwardly mobile professionals are preoccupied with schooling, holidays and family life, rather than the helicopter flighrs and "once-in-a-lifetime safaris" marketed by pricate banks, he said.
       "It's one of those myths that if you're rich, you're going to be brash," Dovey said. "Of course there are inidivuduals who liek to buy the flash red Lamborghini, but the vast majority are looking for the quality Volvo."
       Wealth managers should appeal to this growing source of potential clients as they seek to increase assets under management after the global recession, Dovey said.
       Scorpio's survey was conducted between May and June with the assistance of branding firms Morar Consulting and Goosebumps.
       Global wealth decreased 11.7 per cent to $92.4 trillion last year, according to a survey by Boston Consulting Group, the first drop since the study began in 2001.
       "It's not the secret service world of finance, this is part of the high street," Dovey said. "The wealth industry has been built on the assumption that the rich will come to them, but they don't have to. They could choose to buy property."
       Wealth managers need to better understand the outlook of their clients and potential customers, Peter Flavel, global head of Standard Chartered Private Bank, said.
       "We also need to understand the emotional link between life and wealth," Flavel said.
       "What are the goals, motivations and ambitions of those who have every expectation of increasing their wealth in the future?"
       UBS Barclays are two of the first wealth managers to recognises the need to understand and a wider audience, Dovey said.
       Barclays Wealth asks clients to complete psychological tests to assess their risk appetite and reaction to large gains or losses to help guide investment advice.
       A report published in June by the Barclays unit found that rich investors were paralysed because of concern markets may decline further. More than two-thirds of 2,100 people surveyed worldwide said the risks of price fluctuations were too high.
       "While the economic crisis has given the future wealthy pause for thought about how to achieve their financial targets, most remain highly ambitious that they can quadruple their current levels of wealth, typically within a 10-year time period," Scorpio said.

       Upwardly mobile professionals are preoccupied with schooling, holidays and family life, rather than helicopter flights and once-in-lifetime safaris trips.