Wealth management clients are increasingly using social networks on the internet to discuss issues, a development which will force the industry to be less opaque than in the past, according to a survey of investor members by the Institute for Private Investors, the US private member organization.

Private clients are using networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to exchange ideas on issues in the wealth business, including the ever-sensitive subject of fees, IPI found from a recent survey of its members.

As reported recently by this publication, the private banking client network called My Private Banking, based in Switzerland and Germany, recently launched a service whereby clients, armed with shared knowledge from thousands of peers, can negotiate fee cuts. That body has predicted the service could, in time, go global.

When asked to name the top three methods of accessing news, the respondents to the IPI survey said they favored online sources. While newspapers and magazines still claim the top spot (86 per cent), news websites online follow closely behind (78 per cent). In another trend, PDAs and smart-phones have outpaced laptops as the most favored media device (47 per cent).

More than 90 per cent of IPI's investor membership base are privy to the daily dialogue inside IPI’s online community, the survey showed.

Participating in social media is gaining in popularity: four out of ten respondents (38 per cent) say they actively participate in social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, forums and blogs. A third (33 per cent) passively participate online and 28 per cent say they are not active at all.

IPI has a total of 345 member families.