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January 29, 2014 at 11:26 AM
Younger investors are more likely to feel their advisor isn’t really working for them, less likely to recommend their advisor to someone and more likely to spread their assets among multiple advisors, according to a report from Market Strategies International, a global market research firm.
The firm conducted an online survey of more than 4,000 affluent investors with at least $100,000 in investable assets, including retirement accounts, but not real estate. Respondent were asked to rate on a scale of one to five how strongly they agreed with a series of statements, with a higher score indicating greater agreement.
When asked to rate their agreement with the statement, “I trust my financial advisor is working in my best interest,” most responses were positive.
“About two-thirds agreed overall; 68% either gave a four or five,” Meredith Rice, a senior director at Market Strategies International, told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday. “They’re very likely to agree, but among Gen Y and Gen X, it was actually less than six in 10. Gen Y was 59%, Gen X was 57%, whereas we see the level of agreement going up among the boomer and the silent generations. Among the first-wave boomers, over three in four, 76%, agreed and of the silent generation nearly eight in 10, 78%, agreed. There were very different feelings in terms of trusting their advisors, feeling their advisor was working in their best interest, when you looked at it by generation.”
Younger investors were also giving a smaller share of their assets to their primary advisor, the survey found.
“Among Gen Y, they’re giving about 35%, Gen X about 46% and it keeps going up to the silent generation having their primary advisor manage nearly 70% of their assets,” Rice said. “We also found that the younger Gen Y investors are more likely to be working with multiple advisors compared to some of the older generations.”
The survey found younger investors were less likely than boomers to offer a referral, too. Rice suggested that’s because the industry is still catching up to the needs of these young investors. “The industry has been so focused on the boomers that some of these younger investors just haven’t been getting as much attention. Something else we saw with Gen Y is they’re really hungry for information. They’re using all sorts of different tools to get that information and are more reliant on online tools.”
Young investors might have more complex needs than advisors realize, too, Rice said. Over a quarter of Gen Y respondents said at least part of their assets are from an inheritance, compared with 17% of respondents overall.
It can’t be ignored that advisors with a long history and a good relationship with certain clients will naturally give them more attention, even if unintentionally.
