Wealthy Americans say generating jobs should be President Barack Obama’s top economic top priority over the next 18 months, ahead of reducing the nation's budget deficit and ending political deadlock, according to a survey by Northern Trust Corp. released Wednesday.
The survey of high-net-worth Americans identified the three most important priorities for Obama over the next year-and-a-half as fostering economic growth and reduce unemployment (44 percent); reducing the federal deficit (19 percent) and ending political gridlock (15 percent).
The survey also found that the likelihood of planning for tax changes is a function of wealth and that high-net-worth individuals are most likely to have planned for any tax changes at year end.
“Results show that high-net-worth Americans are taking active steps to adapt to a changing tax environment,” Northern Trust tax strategist Suzanne Shier said in a statement. “This reflects what we have seen over the past year as we have helped many clients restructure estate plans, tax liabilities and investment approaches to make the most of opportunities and challenges ahead.”
Phoenix Marketing International and NIA Enterprises conducted 1,700 online interviews between Nov. 16 and Dec. 17. The survey grouped participants as high net worth, affluent and mass affluent. High net worth refers to a person with $5 million or more in investable assets. Affluent refers to a person with $1 million to $4.99 million in investable assets. Mass affluent refers to a person with $250,000 to $999,999 in investable assets.
Northern Trust is a Chicago-based wealth management firm with $184.1 billion assets under management as of Sept. 30.