The financial industry may be clogging its own pipeline.

Millennials are graduating from college ready to become advisors and representatives, but many are discouraged by the traditional culture of financial firms, says Bill McManus, director of strategic markets at Radnor, Pa.-based Hartford Funds.

“Firms still have the ability to attract young advisors, there’s interest from talented individuals, but the key is in the workplace,” McManus says. “Firms are trying to adapt to millennial demands for accessibility and flexibility.”

In April, McManus hosted a roundtable of millennial financial advisors, born between 1980 and 2000, to gather first-hand opinions regarding the industry’s treatment of its youngest employees.

There are 70 million millennial Americans, says McManus, including high school juniors and seniors through middle-aged thirty-somethings progressing through their careers and starting families.

“These young advisors are really dedicated to the industry and want to understand what things are going to look like over the next five to 15 years,” McManus says. “They’re excited about the opportunity to establish themselves.”

Yet McManus says that the industry’s prevailing perception of millennials continues to be one of underemployed 20-year-olds living in their parents’ basements.

In his whitepaper, McManus recommended that advisory firms put aside preconceived notions regarding millennials and focus on attracting, developing and cultivating them into effective advisors and retaining them by communicating a plan for their future.

The roundtable acknowledged that their peers might feel disconnected to the financial services industry, which might make it difficult for firms to recruit high-level millennial talent.

“The perception among millennial advisors is that the industry as a whole needs to change to be more palatable to the next generation,” McManus says. “There needs to be some flexibility.”

Aside from nervousness around investing caused by living through two major financial crises -– the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s and the global financial crisis in 2008, roundtable participants said that millennials might typecast advisory firms as brick-and-mortar services populated by old men wearing grey suits, or by the miscreants from  films like “The Big Short” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

Roundtable participants said that young advisors want a different work environment than the financial industry typically offers: relaxed dress codes, flexible schedules, open offices and up-to-date technology.

“Firms need to find a way to maintain their air of professionalism to reassure clients that they’re serious businesses, but we need to think some of that professional aspect,” McManus says. “That professionalism might not be appealing to every client. Relationships are still the key, as long as we can build relationships it’s not going to matter if someone’s wearing a grey suit or a blue suit or no suit, or if they’re behind a mahogany desk.”

Roundtable participants argued that firms should place more effort on adjusting to the ways that millennials work. After growing up with wireless internet, email and remote accessibility, millennials demand flexibility and adaptability in their work-life.

Millennials aren’t likely to stay in the office late, due to their reliance on technology, they’re more likely to feel that their physical presence within an office is unnecessary.

One roundtable participant said that “the whole work-life balance concept has evolved… when I walk around the office at six o’clock, it’s director level and above there, and not the junior kids, and it used to be the opposite… it’s just a different mentality.”

Millennials need help connecting to the wealth management industry’s clientele, which is mostly older. McManus recommends that senior advisors commit to coaching their juniors on how to find key points of connection with older clients, like sharing family stories or life experiences, in order to build better relationships.

“Firms need to have a structure around mentoring and training with technology and resources,” McManus says. “Millennials want hands-on experience, this isn’t an industry that you can learn in a classroom.”

Millennial advisors also want to help their peers achieve a higher level of financial success. McManus says that firms should consider allowing millennials to pursue clients their own age, and may be able to source ideas from junior advisors on how to connect with the next generation of investors.

At the same time, McManus says that young advisors may need help connecting with older clients.

“There’s this perception that older clients won’t want to work with younger clients,” McManus says. “If an advisor can display empathy and demonstrate that they can understand an older client’s goals and concerns, the age gap can be bridged pretty quickly. Millennials are not shying away from working with older clients, but they need to find a way to break through the age gap and establish credibility.”

The roundtable participants envisioned themselves as the next generation of leaders. One participant suggested that firms need to “start thinking about (succession) 10 years in advance, or else by the time that you’re ready, you’re just not going to be in a good position.”

Firms interested in including millennial advisors in their workforce as part of a succession or transition plan need to make clear that they’re considering the junior advisor for leadership roles early in their tenure.

“The expectations are high with this group, we’re almost walking the line of an entitlement mentality with millennials,” McManus says. “The point is that millennials want a clear path to the opportunity to become leaders in their firm. There should be some sort of conversation about what that path looks like.”