Though they might not increase an advisor’s AUM, millennial clients can help build a more resilient financial planning firm, according to Oaks, Pa.-based SEI.

Millennials, aged 21 to 35, are often ignored or discounted by traditional financial firms, but there’s ample research proving that young adults can make valuable clients for advisors, says Missy Pohlig, director of nextgen services at SEI.

“Even if you have no interest in serving this generation, even if the thought of serving a millennial disgusts you, even if you think millennials are narcissistic and lazy, it’s still a good idea to be aware of this generation and how they want to do business,” says Pohlig. “The reality is that everyone is going to be impacted by millennials, whether or not you’re going to serve them.”

While analysts have produced a mountain of millennial financial research, little of it is useful to advisors without the perspectives of millennials themselves, she says.

“There’s a ton of non-millennials coming out with their opinions on the millennial generation, but we feel like you need a true millennial perspective to draw useful conclusions from the research,” says Pohlig. “That’s why we feel like our research is atypical.”

In a recently published e-book, “Beyond The Typical Milennial Research,” Pohlig offers a 20-something’s take on some of SEI’s recently collected data.

Pohlig cites four reasons why millennial clients will help advisors moving forward.

1. Millennials Are Disruptors

What millennials have done for retail and media, they’re going to do for financial services as well, Pohlig says. Thus, learning how to serve millennial clients may determine whether an advisory practice goes the way of Amazon, or Sears.

“Millennials are early adopters,” says Pohlig. “Young people are the ones who drive change in industries and pull businesses away from traditional models. Millennial preferences for service models and technology are going to shape financial advice in the future, so it’s in your interest to at least pay attention to them.”

Serving younger clients can help advisory businesses stay ahead of cultural and technological change, which ends up benefitting all of a firm’s clientele in the long run, she says.

2. Millennials Are Underserved

Millennials are a generational frontier for most of the financial services industry, but especially for advisors, she says. According to SEI’s survey, 74 percent of millennials do not have an advisor.

“There’s a lot of competition out there for traditional clients, but millennials are out there accumulating assets absent financial advice,” says Pohlig. “They want advice, but they don’t always want it now, and they don’t always want continuous financial planning. By the time they reach the age when they want continuous advice, if they’re not being served by advisors, they’ll have found a different channel and the opportunity will be gone.”

At the same time, millennials are demanding in-person financial advice—only 10 percent of the millennials in SEI’s study said that they would never seek out professional financial advice. SEI recommends that advisors offer planning around early-to-mid-life events, like marriages, child birth or homebuying, in order to meet the needs of a relatively untapped pool of quality clients.

3. Millennials Are Many Of Your Clients’ Heirs

Millennials will be recipients of the largest wealth transfer in human history, which SEI pegs at around $30 trillion. Millennials are going to demand a lot of advice to help them manage those inheritances.

“If advisors don’t reach out to these heirs, they’re going to take their inherited assets and go elsewhere,” says Pohlig. “Advisors need to make sure that the first time they talk to a millennial heir is well before the elder client passes on.”

Advisors with baby boomer clients are well positioned to serve their clients' adult children with advice now, before a wealth transfer takes place, and doing so might be the key to retaining assets after an elder client dies, she says.

4. Millennials Will Become Your Best Clients

While many young entrepreneurs are posting net worth of multiple billions of dollars, most millennials are still works in progress with low levels of investible assets. Nevertheless, a significant number of millennials count themselves among the 14.1 million emerging wealth households in the U.S., says SEI.

“Baby boomers are starting to age, and they’re starting to decumulate assets,” says Pohlig. “Advisors need to develop relationships with this next generation during the accumulation phase of their lives if they want stability within their firm.”