In this blogpost “the affluent” refers to anyone qualifying as clients of SG wealth mgmt,  having SGD 200k account balance.

Rebecca of UOB suggested that many of his affluent clients prefer (mutual or ETF) funds rather than stock trading.

— reason: professional mgmt (with the mgmt fee) .. highly questionable value-add in reality
“Peaceful sleep” is a major selling point of professionally managed funds.

Active fund managers analyze individual stocks and hand-pick them. I criticized it in bluechips=slightly more dependable than mufu
— reason: professional assistance from financial advisor .. probably a key factor.
In contrast, these advisors will not help them trade stocks because there’s no fee to be earned !
— reason: no interest no time no expertise .. I think more than half of these affluent clients lack enthusiasm (risk appetite), free time or expertise to pick stocks by hand.

Q: in terms of Funds vs stocks, how do I compare to the affluent? I only have some very vague presumptions about the age, nationality distributions of “the affluent”.
A: I guess many of them favor ETF or mutual funds, rather than stocks. The Vanguard 2020 report is an analysis of investor preferences.

Q: how relevant is it to understand fellow investors?
A: I think the relevance may grow.