Most advisors would welcome the chance to manage a greater share of their clients’ assets, yet a majority of high-net-worth investors say their advisor has never asked them about the possibility of asset consolidation, according to surveys conducted earlier this year by fintech SEI. The surveys found a gap between advisors’ belief in the value of unified household portfolio management and investors’ use of these accounts.
A survey of 518 financial advisors conducted this January found that the overwhelming majority (95%) try to consolidate all their clients’ assets into a single account. The average advisor rated the importance of doing so as an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Yet currently, only 7% of advisors said they manage 100% of their clients’ assets, in line with the figures reported to SEI in its survey of high-net-worth investors on the same topic.
The majority of 302 investors SEI surveyed (88%) said they don’t have their primary financial advisor managing all of their assets. Although over half of these investors (63%) are aware that managing all assets in their household portfolio together could help them save money on taxes, advisors often fail to ask them about the possibility of asset consolidation. In fact, the majority of investors (71%) said their advisor never asked to manage a greater share of their assets.
“Advisors do need to need to explicitly ask to [manage more household assets], and ask how they can help investors and what problems they could potentially solve and be more explicit about communicating the value they could bring to the table to help those investors manage their household wealth,” said Arthur Worthington, senior managing director of strategic business development and integration at SEI.
According to surveyed advisors, lack of client interest or need has been one of the biggest reasons preventing them from implementing household portfolio management, with 37% citing it. A little less than a third (30%) pointed to the lack of technology allowing them to automate the process as an obstacle. Insufficient staffing was cited by 22% of advisors, and the time taken away from providing client services by 20%.
Advisors who do provide household portfolio management said they spend anywhere from 37 hours (for clients with assets under $100 million) to 65 hours (for clients with over $500 million) per month on the task. A substantial share of advisors rely on manual processes to complete such tasks as multi-account tax harvesting (40%), multi-account tax-smart withdrawals (41%) and multi-account tax-efficient transitions (39%).
This gap exists even though three-fourths of investors in SEI’s survey rely on just one financial advisor. About a fifth (21%) work with two advisors, with only 4% working with three or more advisors. However, only 10% of investors said their primary advisor manages 100% of their investable assets. Fewer than half (41%) said their primary advisor manages between 75% and 99% of their assets, while 26% said their primary advisor manages between 51% and 75%.
Lack of advisor initiative was not the sole or the main reason why investors in the survey did not place all of their assets with one firm. A significant number of investors (39%) said they wanted to diversify among multiple advisory firms, while 17% said they don’t fully trust one firm with all of their assets. Another 27% said their employer-sponsored plan couldn’t be moved, and 26% had “other” reasons for not consolidating (these included investors wanting to be involved in managing their money and having easy access to cash, among others). Only 11% of advisors said their main reason for not letting one advisor manage all of their assets was because the advisor never asked them and never made a strong case for doing so.
Saving on taxes was the top reason investors cited for consolidating their household assets with one financial advisor, with 46% indicating it would play a role in their decision. Increasing income in retirement came in a close second, with 42% of respondents. Lower fees and simplicity/convenience were also cited by 38% and 31% of investors, respectively.
Taxes are a top expense for households with annual incomes over $200,000, so advisors who focus on tax savings when discussing UMH often capture clients’ attention, noted Worthington.
“It’s a very tangible, durable solution that stands up to fee compression,” he said. “If you can measure tax benefits, tax loss harvesting and other capabilities and showcase to investors how much they’ve saved in taxes and stack it up against a 1% pay charge, that’s a very clear way to demonstrate value.”
When asked what their advisor would need to do to convince them that asset consolidation was in their best interest, 39% of investors said they’d need to receive a personalized estimate of the value of doing so. Another 37% said they would be convinced by a clear explanation and examples of the value of consolidation, even without numbers. About a third of surveyed investors (31%) said none of the actions listed, which also included third-party research and a case study of an investor similar to them, would convince them to consolidate.
Yet, 41% of investors cited fees as the main reason they would opt not to consolidate their assets, and 34% said they were concerned about concentration risk. The paperwork and disruption involved in moving assets and incurring additional taxes from selling or moving assets were mentioned by 24% of surveyed investors, each, as primary reasons they would not want to consolidate. A fifth (20%) of investors did not have the confidence in one advisor.
At the same time, over half of the investors in the survey (66%) said they felt very confident in the advice they received from their advisor. Another 31% said they were somewhat confident in the advice they were getting. Only a very small minority indicated they were either not very confident (1%) or not confident at all (1%) in their advisor.
The investor survey was conducted by YouGov between April 24 and April 30, 2026. It included 302 adults aged 50 to 70 who have a financial advisor and at least $1 million in investable assets. Over half of the surveyed investors (57.6%) said they were either fully or partially retired.
The advisor survey was conducted by SEI between Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, 2026, and included 518 advisors.