According to a recent survey of wealthy investors with $5 million or more in investible assets conducted by Spectrem Group of Chicago, wealthy investors are now, on average, managing 47% of their assets directly with no professional help. They are delegating just 18%, on average, to the full discretion of advisors.

With the remainder of their money, they are often consulting with their advisors but making their own final decisions. While Spectrem lacks historical trends, they believe that the 18% delegated to advisors is significantly down from prior years. It’s no surprise that investors would have taken more of their money away from advisors after the devastating losses of 2008, but it’s not clear what percentage of these funds will ever return to advisors.

The investment landscape has recently seen a proliferation of investment vehicles, ETFS, etc., that make it easier than ever for investors to participate in the market without the services of advisors.