Wealth Segment Analysis

What is Wealth Segment Analysis?

Wealth Segment Analysis categorizes your clients based on their estimated investable assets and income levels. This segmentation helps you understand the types of clients you serve and tailor your strategies accordingly.

Wealth Segment Definitions

Catchlight typically classifies clients into these segments:

Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW)

Investable assets: $30M+
Require specialized estate planning, tax strategies, and concierge services

High Net Worth (HNW)

Investable assets: $5M - $30M
Need comprehensive wealth management and sophisticated planning

Affluent

Investable assets: $1M - $5M
Benefit from financial planning, portfolio management, and retirement strategies

Mass Affluent

Investable assets: $100K - $1M
Focus on accumulation, basic planning, and investment guidance

Emerging Affluent

Investable assets: Under $100K
Early in wealth building, need foundational financial guidance

Reading the Chart

The Wealth Segment chart displays:

Segment Names: Clear labels for each wealth category
Client Count or Percentage: How many (or what %) of clients are in each segment
Visual Representation: Pie chart, bar chart, or donut chart format

What to Look For

Practice Positioning

Is your practice concentrated in one or two segments?
Does your service model match your client composition?
Are you positioned as you intended?

Service Alignment

Do your fee structures match the segments you serve?
Are your service offerings appropriate for client wealth levels?
Do you have the right expertise for your segments?

Growth Direction

Are you attracting clients in your target segments?
Is there opportunity to move upmarket or downmarket?
Which segments are growing vs. shrinking?

How to Use This Analysis

1. Evaluate Service Model Fit

Ensure your service offerings, pricing, and communication style match the predominant wealth segments in your practice.

Example: If 70% of your clients are Mass Affluent but you're priced for HNW clients, you may have a mismatch.

2. Identify Cross-Sell Opportunities

Clients in higher wealth segments often need more sophisticated services:

Estate planning for HNW clients
Tax optimization strategies
Trust services
Philanthropic planning
Business succession planning

3. Refine Marketing Strategy

Target your marketing efforts toward the segments you want to grow:

Moving Upmarket: Focus on HNW channels like wealth management events, country clubs, professional networks
Scaling with Mass Affluent: Emphasize digital marketing, employer relationships, and referral programs

4. Benchmark Your Practice

Compare your wealth segment distribution to:

Industry averages for your practice size
Your stated target market
Your geographic area's demographics

Filtering for Insights

Use filters with Wealth Segment Analysis to discover:

By Acquisition Channel

Which marketing sources bring which wealth segments?
Are your HNW clients coming from referrals while Mass Affluent come from digital?

By Advisor

How does client distribution vary across your team?
Do certain advisors naturally attract specific segments?

By Time Period

Is your wealth segment mix shifting?
Are you moving toward or away from your target market?

By Geography

Do certain territories have higher concentrations of specific segments?

Example Use Cases

Scenario 1: Repositioning Strategy Your analysis shows 80% Mass Affluent clients, but you want to focus on HNW. You develop a 3-year plan to gradually transition through targeted marketing and referral requests.

Scenario 2: Service Packaging You discover a 50/50 split between Affluent and Mass Affluent. You create two distinct service tiers with appropriate pricing and deliverables for each segment.

Scenario 3: Team Specialization With strong representation across multiple segments, you assign team members to specialize in specific wealth segments, improving service quality and expertise.

Strategic Questions to Answer

Are we serving who we want to serve?
Do our economics work for our wealth segment mix?
What segments offer the best growth opportunities?
Where should we focus acquisition efforts?
Do we have the right infrastructure for our segments?

Warning Signs to Watch For

Over-concentration: More than 80% in a single segment (risk concentration)
Segment Drift: Unintentional shift toward lower or higher segments
Service Mismatch: Premium services with mass market clients or vice versa
Profitability Issues: Too many clients in segments that don't meet minimum revenue thresholds