Economic behavior of the affluent, 1964

The purpose of this study was to investigate high-income individuals in their roles as investors and workers. The interviews included questions on saving objectives and investment policies, trust fund ownership, delegation of investment management, people's sources of information about investing, kind of assets held and reasons for choice of particular assets, gifts and inheritances received, philanthropic giving and gifts to relatives, capital gains and losses, occupation and work experience of both head and wife, family income and income patterns, information about taxes and tax considerations, and the structure and social characteristics of the family. The main questions deal with the acquisition, handling, and expected disposition of assets, and the factors which affect portfolio decisions. A secondary objective was factors affecting work effort of the head of the household and the head's spouse. No individual incomes were revealed, and interview reports had to be used to infer the sampling rate for each individual. Weights were used to make the sample represent dollars of adjusted gross income instead of families.