Advisors are not doing enough to reach potential millennial clients, said Frieda Lewis, Broadridge Financial Solutions managing director of global relationship management and the firm’s chief diversity officer.
But Lewis, who spoke at a women’s leadership workshop Monday at the Financial Services Institute One Voice conference, told attendees that contrary to popular belief, millennials don’t want their first contact with advisors to be through texting, the internet or social media. Nope, they want to meet you in person.
Lewis referenced findings from a study, “Decoding the Millennial Mindset,” that Broadridge did last year that showed 73 percent of millennials say that in-person communication builds the greatest trust with a new financial advisor. Once a relationship with an advisor has been established, millennials prefer email for ongoing communication about markets, taxes and financial education, the survey said. The study defined millennials as people born between 1977 ad 1995.
However, many advisors are not even connecting with the millennial children of their existing clients, let alone other millennials. “I have a financial advisor,” Lewis stated, “and my financial advisor has never met my kids. My advisor has never even asked to meet my kids.”
The survey found that 55 percent of millennials surveyed would consider using their parents’ advisor, but only one-third of them said that their parents work with a financial advisor. And of that one-third, only 20 percent of them have ever met their parents’ advisor, the study found. “That’s a real takeaway, and a real opportunity,” Lewis said.
Who do milennials go to for financial information and advice? Lewis noted 52 percent of millennials in the study generally go to family and friends.
Contrary to popular myth, not all millennials are looking for a youngish advisor. Unlike baby boomers, who when they were young focused on the “Generation Gap” and the mantra “Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30,” millennials generally regard their parents, teachers and other mentors with respect and affection, the survey found.
“They want an advisor who knows their stuff,” Lewis said. “They did not want someone new to the industry.”
The survey found 54 percent of millennials want an experienced advisor, 20 percent preferred an advisor with a similar family history to their own, and 15 percent want an advisor with a similar economic and educational background, she added.
The study also found that 67 percent of millennials currently have some kind of a retirement savings plan: Almost half (49 percent) currently invest in a 401(k), 403(b), pension plan or similar program through their employer.