Older investors know significantly less about responsible investing than their younger counterparts, according to Crossmark Global Investments, a financial services firm with $5.2 billion in assets based in Houston that focuses on responsible investing.

A mere 6 percent of those over the age of 60 know what ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing is, compared to a majority of those between the ages of 23 and 39, or millennials.

The knowledge gap shown in the age demographics represents another opportunity that advisors are overlooking, Crossmark said in its report, “Investors, Advisors and Values-Based Investing,” which included 488 investors with investible assets of $250,000 to $5 million.

The survey found a strong correlation between age and familiarity with terms such as values-based, responsible, ESG, socially responsible and faith-based investing. Only 40 percent of senior investors said they were familiar with values-based investing, compared to 84 percent of millennials and only 37 percent of those over 60 were familiar with socially responsible investing compared to 87 percent of millennials.

At the same time, the survey found that as investors increase in age, their financial advisors are speaking to them less about these various forms of investing. Only 25 percent of senior investors' have had a conversation about values-based investing with their advisors, compared to 85 percent of millennial investor.

“The senior demographic still holds a large amount of investible assets that has been mostly untapped in the values-based segment,” the report said.

“Eight-eight percent of millennials said they want to talk about values-based investing with their advisors. In the next few decades, these same individuals will enter the age 60 demographic and presumably still will care about values and values-based investing,” Crossmark said. “Advisors have an opportunity to help educate the current generation of seniors on values-based investing and to simultaneously prepare” millennials.

"We were surprised to find such a knowledge divide with values-based investing, considering the level of interest there is with the millennial age group and the variety of options available to investors," said Art Smith, managing director of distribution and marketing at Crossmark. "It is clear that there is still plenty of room for education around the strategy."