"This generation really underparticipates in employer-sponsored retirement plans, so it's critical to engage them on this front," says Third Millennium founder Richard Thau, another Gen Xer.
Macaskill maintains that advisors can assist, both in the 401(k) arena, when they work with small-business owners to set up plans, and in their individual practices. "They can help shape the message when putting 401(k) plans in place by educating clients and employees. In everyday practice, I hope they're also asking if clients have any adult children that need assistance."
Some advisors do just that. Louis Llanes, president of Blythe Lane Investment in Englewood, Colo., routinely sees the Gen Xers whom existing clients refer. He'll even help them for free. So far, nonreferrals haven't fared as well, since the 2% asset-based fee he charges wouldn't compensate his firm-especially if the client has few or no assets. But Llanes is warming to the idea of charging a flat fee to help younger investors, as he puts it, figure out a "blocking-and-tackling strategy" to get started.
Younger advisors, those just getting started and those who want to put a succession plan in place for their junior partners are also figuring out ways to work with Gen-X women.
Cliff Robison, a Gen Xer himself and financial consultant with Charter One Bank's brokerage affiliate, Charter One Securities, in Dearborn, Mich., admits many of his clients are in their sixties, but says he works with anyone from his peer group who wants to start investing. "I never turn anyone away or tell them their investment is too small," says Robison, a commission-based planner who gets referrals from the bank. "They're my future referrals and my clients, potentially for the rest of my life."
Clients In The Making
The majority of the 23 million Generation-X women in the United States today think investing, especially for retirement, is a priority. Some are even doing something about it and say they're using an advisor to help them. More than 30% already earn $50,000 or more annually, and almost 30% of this group of Gen Xers has socked away $25,000 or more for retirement (13% for Gen-X women overall). That leaves about 21 million waiting in the wings.
Tips for working with these women?
"Don't wait until they've accumulated $100,000 because it will be too late," warns Rob Densen, a senior vice president and director of corporate affairs at OppenheimerFunds in New York. Densen, who helped steer the study on Gen-X women, has been involved for almost a decade in the firm's research on women's investing habits.
"This is not a wasteland," Densen says of the demographic group that has earned the ignoble nickname "slacker." "This is virtually an untapped market with real opportunity."