A recent U.S. Bank survey of Black Americans with at least $25,000 in investable assets found that 61 percent of Black respondents feel better about their current financial situation than they did before the pandemic, compared to 49 percent for Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian respondents.
Black consumers were twice as likely as their non-Black counterparts to want financial planners who look more like them – gender, age, race, sexual orientation (30% vs. 14% respectively).
Other insights from the survey include:
-77% of Black respondents think the racial wealth gap will either increase or, best-case scenario, remain the same by 2030.
-79% feel there are institutional roadblocks impeding their ability to accumulate wealth; this number was higher for Black female single head of household respondents (85%).
-69% of Black consumers feel a deep sense of responsibility to help their communities financially; they also are more committed to leaving a financial legacy for the next generation.
This work is intensely personal to me, and I have my own thoughts based on my life experiences, but it was important to us that we broaden the conversation by listening to consumers to learn about their perspectives, and then further test those learnings in our quantitative research,” said Scott Ford, U.S. Bank president of affluent wealth management, which focuses on emerging affluent and affluent consumers.
“The bank is continually holding a wide range of additional conversations with consumers across all wealth levels as part of our holistic approach to help address the racial wealth gap.”
U.S. Bank surveyed 4,024 people of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian heritage.
The survey found that Black respondents are far more likely than non-Black respondents to feel a sense of duty to lift their communities financially.
When it comes to wealth accumulation, 66% of all Black respondents feel their community is at a disadvantage compared to Hispanics (37%), Asians (17%) and Caucasians (7%).
About 61% of Black respondents said educating their family or their community on financial matters is important to them, compared to 46% of non-Black respondents.
Nearly twice as many Black respondents as Hispanic respondents say they have been treated differently by the financial services industry due to their race (23% vs. 13% respectively) – and nearly four times as many compared to white respondents (6%).
When asked for changes they’d like to see in the financial services industry, Black consumers were twice as likely as their non-Black counterparts to want financial planners who look more like them – gender, age, race, sexual orientation (30% vs. 14% respectively).
Black Millennial and Gen X respondents find it more important than Boomers for their financial advisor to be the same race/ethnicity: 65% of Millennials and 61% of Gen Xers said they want their financial advisor to be like them.
Black women are less likely to collaborate with a financial advisor and feel the Black community is at more of a disadvantage for wealth accumulation than Black males.
The rate of Black women surveyed who collaborated with an advisor was 57% vs. 66% of Black men.
However, 72% percent of Black female single head of household respondents collaborate with a financial advisor.
Black women (24%) feel more anxiety than Black men (16%) when thinking about financial planning.
Black women (70%) are more likely than Black men (59%) to feel the Black community is at a disadvantage vs. the general population in terms of wealth accumulation.
Black consumers are committed to building wealth for the next generation.
Twice as many Black respondents describe financial success as leaving a legacy compared to their white counterparts (20% vs. 10%). They are also more likely than white respondents to define success as being able to help the next generation (26% vs. 16%).
Black consumers surveyed said they value real estate as part of their wealth portfolio at a high rate; 47% of Black consumers surveyed said they view real estate as a tangible asset to pass along to family, more so than their white counterparts in the survey (39%).
Of the Black Americans surveyed, 16% said they had achieved a goal of setting aside money to start a business (compared to just 8% of Asian respondents and 12% of white respondents).
