Overall, U.S. investors are optimistic about the economy, new Cerulli research indicates.

However, while there’s more economic optimism in the Northeast and the West Coast, the level of worry about three major economic concerns—protecting current levels of wealth, planning for retirement, and the cost of health care—vary from region to region.

Of course, it’s not all coming up roses for everyone on optimism; the report says that respondents in the Rocky Mountain region (44 percent) and the Southwest (44 percent) are most likely to express pessimistic outlooks. But overall, people are focused on wealth protection, retirement planning and health care costs.

In the report, Scott Smith, director at Cerulli, says that while all six regions of the country are agreed on those three chief economic concerns, there’s broad division from place to place on how those concerns rank.

Smith says that while “economic apprehensions regarding health care are strongest in the Midwest (27 percent), Southwest (25 percent) and the Southeast (24 percent),” that’s not the case elsewhere. He adds, “This is compared with just 17 percent of those from the Rocky Mountain states and 20 percent from the Northeast and Pacific regions. Thus, health care costs represent a consistently underserved economic concern.”

Across the country, assuring a comfortable standard of living in retirement and protecting current wealth rank as the two most prevalent concerns in each region, in that order, and by a substantial margin. Aggressively growing wealth ranked no higher than 7 percent, and only was a priority for 4 percent of households in the Rocky Mountain region.

When it comes to retirement, the report says, specific apprehensions about planning for retirement account for 20 percent of responses among Rocky Mountain investors, but only 10 percent within the Southwest segment.

When asked directly about their expectations regarding their short-term investment changes, the report finds that respondents from the Pacific (36 percent) and Northeast (34 percent) regions are the most determined to add to their portfolios, while Southeastern respondents are not quite as positive—at 32 percent—but also report the lowest expected redemption levels (8 percent).

That results in the region’s net increase level (24 percent) coming in comparable to those of the Northeast (24 percent) and the Pacific (28 percent).

While the Pacific region may be the most enthusiastic about adding to their portfolios, other regions aren’t lagging by much; in the Rocky Mountain region, 31 percent plan to boost investments, while in both the Midwest and Southwest 29 percent are looking to increase.

Among households looking to decrease, those in the Rocky Mountain region lead the way at 12 percent, followed by the Northeast and Southwest, both at 10 percent, the Midwest at 9 percent and the Pacific at 8 percent.

Instant Insights /

Economic optimism hugs coasts, while worries plague heartland

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