Even with very little financial education, Hispanic investors have grown into knowledge-hungry financiers, wanting to absorb information about investments.

Seventy-two percent of Hispanic investors surveyed in a Well Fargo survey stated they wished that they knew more about investing in mutual funds, stocks and bonds. That's compared to 64 percent of U.S. investors overall.

Nearly 75 percent of surveyed Hispanics indicated they wished they had learned more about managing finances when they were growing up, compared to 61 percent of U.S. investors overall. Also, 45 percent said, "no one ever taught them about savings and investing," compared to 31 percent of all U.S. investors.

For Hispanics, particularly those from immigrant families, saving and investing weren't top priorities. Money earned was used for food, clothing and the home, and not much could be spared for savings or investing. Jody Agius Vallejo, assistant professor of sociology at University of Southern California, stated to ThinkAdvisor in an interview, "Many Latin American countries experienced market failure ... failures in the banking system or insurance market, so often times they're distrustful of banks and understandably so. Market failures can affect how people view banks here."

Second-generation and U.S.-born Latinos are certainly less skeptical of banks, but "they don't necessarily have financial role models," and often remain unbanked. According to the survey, 92 percent of the Hispanic investors polled stated that their parents spoke "a lot" or "sometimes" about the importance and value of hard work during their upbringing, but less than half said that parents talked about financial issues.

Hispanic investors tend to be more opposed to risk, according to the survey. Nearly half (47 percent) said they preferred to put money into savings with no risk of losing it, compared to 35 percent of U.S. investors overall. This can be attributed to a number of factors, including the added responsibility of having to provide financial support to their families. Thirty-one percent of Hispanic investors financially support adult children, parents, grandparents, extended family and others, compared to 26 percent of all U.S. investors. And 6 percent (compared to 1 percent) of Hispanic investors provide financial support to individuals who live outside of the U.S.

As a matter of fact, Hispanic users can even be more up to date on what's happening in investment markets when in comparison to investors from countries like Denmark for instance. According to the Danish investment portal Mininvestering.dk , the Danes' natural instinct is to start investing as soon as they get additional money saved, which does not seem to be the same behaviour seen amongst the Hispanic community despite nearly 3/4 of the surveyed subjects having said they wished to know more about personal finances.

In addition, nearly 60 percent of surveyed Hispanics offer financial support to family members and their communities (compared to 44 percent) and 55 percent (compared to 39 percent) reported that they lent or supplied money to adult family members within the last year.

Hispanic investors are also less likely to have family inheritance, especially immigrant families, and they don't have a great deal of wealth to tap into.

The Wells Fargo findings were based on a survey conducted between June 12 and June 24, which included 528 Hispanic investors nationwide, aged 25-75. It also included a national comparison of 530 non-Hispanic investors. The findings of the survey revealed that while Hispanics have humble beginnings and a great deal of financial responsibilities, they are active seekers of knowledge.

"The overriding message here is that people are indeed quite hungry for knowledge, their appetite is strong," said Steve Novak, senior investment strategist for Wells Fargo Private Bank, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. "Our best clients are often the ones that know the most about the workings of the [financial] industry. We need to focus on education."

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