“Many millennials view financial advisors skeptically, and as such it’s imperative to be transparent about pricing,” says Ashaunda Davis, a financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual in Atlanta. “More planning platforms are available than ever before and millennials, as many people are early in their careers, are cost sensitive.”
“The primary theme with the millennial crowd is value,” says Dennis McNamara, a financial planner at Lighthouse Financial Advisors in Red Bank, N.J. “As a generation raised with search engines and cost comparison sites, millennials tend to know exactly what they want and do a good job equating value with service. If you are going to market to the millennial crowd with any success, planners need to be able to show that the fees they charge justify the services they provide.”
That’s why Ian Bloom of Open World Financial Life Planning in Raleigh, N.C., offers project-based plans to address specific topics, as well as annual planning agreements with monthly payment structures. “Either way, the client doesn't have to have a lot of assets or write a huge check up front to engage my services,” he says. “The transparency and ease of payment doesn't go unnoticed.”