This is part 2 of a story that ran in the April issue of Financial Advisor magazine. Click here to read part 1.
Gregg Fisher founded New York-based Gerstein Fisher at the age of 21. Now 45, he reminisces about his early days as a fee-only planner serving clients who most advisors passed over.
“The idea of an investment advisor serving a bunch of people of moderate means instead of a few wealthy families wasn’t there,” Fisher says. “I was 21 and brand new, I figured nobody old and with a lot of money would talk to me. I ended up talking to people my age who didn’t have a lot.”
As it turns out, Fisher was presaging a new breed of advisor that may come of age with the millennial generation.
Millennials, born between 1980 and 1999, want financial assistance, but advisors aren’t reaching them effectively, says 30-year-old Brandon Marcott of Waukesha, Wis.-based Edify Financial Planning.
“Millennials are looking for someone who won’t simply tell them what to do next,” Marcott says. “They are concerned with what they need to do now. The long-term focus just isn’t their primary concern.”
Advisors probably ignore millennials because of their lower net worth—but should they wait until millennials save $250,000?
“It used to be that advisors didn’t step in until wealth was accumulated,” says Joe Clark, an Indianapolis-based CFP. “That won’t work with millennials. You have to help in the accumulation phase. I don’t think the industry is ready for that.”
If advisors want to serve millennials, they need to capture the business before the clients accumulate assets. That’s why Marcott and other advisors joined the XY Planning Network. Founded in 2014, the network nurtures planning practices targeting millennial and Generation X clients.
While millennials’ difficulty accumulating assets repels many advisors, for XY Planning Network advisors it makes little difference.