In 2009, for the first time ever, mass-affluent investors rejected full-service brokers as their sole top choice for primary advisor, according to a new report by Spectrem Group.

Mass-affluent households in the US using full-service brokers as their primary financial advisor fell to 22 per cent in 2009, down from 30 per cent in the year before, Spectrem said in a report called "Mass Affluent Investor 2009". Such households are defined as having a net worth of $100,000 to $1 million, not including primary residence.

At the same time, mass affluent investors using independent financial planners as their primary advisor rose to 22 per cent from 20 per cent in 2008. Planners and brokers now share the rank of No 1 advisor to the mass affluent, which had exclusively been held by brokers since Spectrem began tracking the data in 2001.

"For the very first time, brokers no longer rank as the sole No 1 choice among the important mass affluent group. Whether linked to perceptions of financial institutions or a need to reassess their investing, this shift coincides with a strong move toward conservative investing by the mass affluent," said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group.

The report is based on the online polling of 1,498 households with $100,000 to $1 million of net worth. Fieldwork for the survey was carried out in July 2009.