Raise your hand if you’re still using that song you learned to memorize the periodic table. How about that trick to remember how to find the area of a square? Look into a high school classroom and you may find a student begrudgingly circling answers on a test about the inner workings of a vole. He circles “metatarsals” while one, aching question rattles around his mind: “When will I ever need this in my life?”

Now, see a newly married couple standing in front of a house. It’s exactly what they want and it’s even in the right town. It fits their style and it’s in walking distance to shops, bars and her barre class. The area schools are great for the kid on the way. Now what? Do you think they can remember any songs about mortgage applications, down payments or real estate tax escrow options?

The simple answer: no. As a result, many young adults are incapable of making the everyday monetary decisions that define wellbeing and the economy. Teachers, however, are certainly not to blame for our financial shortcomings. Instead, society as a whole has discounted the importance of financial education, which has fueled an epidemic of financial illiteracy across the country. In fact, a FINRA study shows that only fourteen percent of respondents can correctly answer five basic financial literacy questions.

Meanwhile, young people make countless decisions about money, with the weight of each choice enough to sway the trajectory of life and an entire generation. How do we go about buying a house? How much should we borrow for college? How and when do we start filing tax returns? How much should we save, spend and invest? While some American adults can still answer some simple algebra problems, many aren’t armed with fundamental personal finance knowledge. Without that basis, how can they wade through the increasing complexity of long-term financial planning?

When we struggle in school, we look to the parents. I mean, it’s not like we ever built those science class volcanoes on our own or stayed up alone rewriting our college application essay. But while parents frantically help in the competitive race to college, many fail to address basic financial skills, ensuring the next generational loop of poor money choices.

Financial professionals can choose to go beyond their prototypical roles and fill the gap. Of course, this is not just for the sake of establishing some moral high ground, and advisors shouldn’t suddenly feel obliged to start teaching night classes. But as businesspeople, advisors tend to seek the most obvious opportunities and therefore ignore massive segments of the population, particularly young people that need the most help facing difficult decisions. After all, we should hope they become our next generation of clients.

Young adults still need to make important choices like buying that first house—the perfect opportunity for a professional to take their hand. Accountants and financial advisors, for example, can work together to identify and answer financial questions early in the process. When that newly married couple buys their first home, various mortgage and tax escrow options are often available. Before closing, professionals can clearly explain the process and work together to run models to illustrate the annual cost of ownership as well as the income tax savings from never-before-taken itemized deductions.

Starting to provide situational financial education will separate advisors from a herd that doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation among younger audiences. Authentic education that supports real-time, specific client needs allows advisors to heal these self-inflicted reputational wounds. Most important, effective education breeds long-lasting trust and relationships. Most of us remember those great teachers who guided us through class and our early lives.

Professionals like advisors and accountants can work together to help young adults build and preserve wealth before they pass financial milestones or miss goals. Such a team can provide the most comprehensive education and financial planning that factor in the tax effects of growing wealth. Fortunately, the most righteous reasons for education can align with a professional’s capitalist agenda: to attract more clients willing to listen. And such an idea—to provide a service beyond the typical role—is likely one advisors never learned in school.

Zachary Conway is an associate at Conway Wealth Group, and Jo Anna M. Fellon is a principal at Friedman LLP.