Financial advisors have lots of work ahead of them because they face a basic question.

Namely, who will be their clients in the next generation when millions of Americans don’t have a clue about financial issues?

Many Americans don’t have basic financial knowledge and don’t seem to acknowledge that the lack of savings, investments and planning are critical issues in their lives.

“It is an epidemic problem,” says Christopher Kuehne, a certified financial planner in Pound Ridge, N.Y.

Indeed, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's national financial capability study found that two-thirds of Americans don’t understand basic financial concepts. For example, they can’t compute the interest on a $20,000 loan with a 10 percent interest rate.

“Only 37 percent of respondents are considered to have high financial literacy,” according to Finra. That means they could not correctly answer four or more questions on a basic five-question financial literacy quiz.

“I think we have an obligation to do a better job of educating clients and would be clients,” says Charles Hughes, a CFP in Bayshore, N.Y.

Kuehne says financial professionals should do as much pro bono work as possible, especially with young people who are an underserved segment of the advisory industry. And he adds that advisors should also try to work with people starting their first jobs on how to effectively use their 401(k)s, as well as to impress upon young people how important stocks are over the long term.

Kuehne notes that many young people don’t have enough stock exposure. “They are spooked by volatility,” he says.

Kuehne adds that advisors should be proactive in helping those starting out and not likely to be getting any professional advice.

“Many people are intimidated by the subject of investing and need our help. They are often too afraid to ask,” he says.

Kuehne says part of the problem of widespread financial illiteracy is that many people don’t even understand how they are at risk.

Hughes says planning professionals should try to volunteer at high schools and community organizations, and take every opportunity to explain the basics of financial planning to the general public.

And he believes that advisors should provide better background information on the decisions they make when meeting with clients on specific planning issues.

Furthermore, many advisors posit that basic financial education should be a requirement in high school and college.

“I remember taking a high school course in basic budgeting and how to balance a checkbook and a few other things,” says Ronald Rogé, a CFP in Bohemia, N.Y. “Now I don’t think they even have that simple course anymore.”

Rogé says he offered to a teach a free financial planning course in a local high school. “There seemed to be an initial interest, then the interest sputtered out,” he says.

And the interest in needing financial advisors could also sputter out. What is the danger if advisors can’t significantly close the financial information gap that affects so many people at a time when Americans are some $4 trillion short on retirement savings, according to EBRI.

Rogé recently encountered that problem.

“I had someone come in and had done no planning and now wanted to retire in his 50s,” he says. “After talking it over, this person suddenly decided that maybe he should work for one more year and that would solve the problem.”

Of course, that won’t come anywhere near solving the problem. This person was going on without an effective plan, and millions more will do the same or won’t even want to consider the problem.

So what will happen to advisors and their businesses if they can’t reach a new generation of Americans who take an ignorance-is-bliss approach to retirement planning?

“Good question,” Rogé says.