Investors who work with a financial advisor are more likely to have a financial plan going forward and be more confident about the ways to execute that plan, according to the “Fidelity Investments 2024 Financial Resolutions Study.”
Boston-based Fidelity spoke with more than 3,000 adult investors and found that 84% of those who work with an advisor have a plan for reaching their financial goals in 2024. But despite that planning, 46% are still feeling overwhelmed by their personal finances.
Investors are looking to address their finances in the coming year: 66% of respondents said they are considering making a resolution about their finances, according to the study. That sentiment is strongest among the younger generations, with 76% of millennials and 75% of Gen Z planning to make a change, the study found. It identified millennials as those between the ages of 26 and 41 and Gen Z as those between the ages of 18 and 26.
Advisors have a big chance to make an impact on younger investors looking to make such changes. However, in the past advisors have also shown reluctance to work with younger clients. In a white paper that came out in May, advisors reported that they reached out to only 13% of their clients’ children, according to Anand Sekhar, vice president of practice management and consulting for Fidelity Institutional.
It is a wasted opportunity, he said, adding that the younger generation is wanting advisors who act like personal trainers at the gym.
“Advisors play a really interesting role with navigating a lot of different aspects, whether that’s financial accountability, whether it’s navigating [clients] through the opportunities around an investment perspective or around making sure they are actually staying on track and not pulling out [of the market] at the wrong time,” he said.
One of the main reasons advisors are failing to reach out to the younger generations is that they are abiding by the wishes of their clients, who are hesitant to involve their children in any financial discussions, Sekhar said.
Parents are worried their children will become entitled if they learn the true nature of their family’s financial situation or may start spending money that is not theirs yet, Sekhar explained. Yet the parents continue to have those fears about their children even after the kids are grown up with children of their own.
Advisors should work to bridge that gap from one generation to the other in a manner that is not aggressive and does not upset the client, he added.
Advisors must seize the opportunity as soon as possible and start what he calls “peership conversations”—a talk in which the child feels more involved. In many cases, parents talk down to their children, and the kids end up feeling disconnected from the conversation. But in a peership conversation, the child is not only included but also gets a voice in the decisions, even if parents still have the final vote.