Millennials: Ignore Them at Your Peril

Millennials—who are they and what do they want from advisors? That’s a question plaguing the industry today as advisors and broker-dealers grapple with how—or even if—to serve this generation, which currently stands at 70 million members, the largest cohort of the nation’s population.

A recent panel discussion at the Investment Company Institute’s annual conference in Washington of execs from the wealth management, robo and broker-dealer worlds concluded that figuring out how to serve this group of well-educated 18- to 34-year-olds is, indeed, worth it.

Stuart Parker, president of Prudential Investments, moderated the panel, which included Richard Dion, head of strategic partnerships for Envestnet; Adam Nash, CEO of Wealthfront; and Andrew Sieg, head of global wealth and retirement solutions for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Parker threw out some statistics about these young folks: They have between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in assets; 63% of 20- to 25-year-olds are employed, with 31% living at home and another 35% actually owning a home; and seven out of 10 of them have student debt of roughly $30,000 with the average income of this generation standing at about $34,000, “so they have a lot to do to pay off that debt.”

While most millennials don’t have a lot of money—yet—they’ll be inheriting a lot of money, Parker noted.

“You ignore the millennials at your own peril,” said BofA’s Sieg.

“I would agree betting against what is the largest cohort is probably a mistake,” added Nash.

A recent analysis by Pew Research Center of U.S. Census Bureau data found that millennials have now surpassed Gen X in terms of the number of U.S. workers—with 53.5 million millennials in the labor force versus 52.7 million Gen Xers.

Pew reported that the Census Bureau projects that the millennial population was 74.8 million in 2014, and that by 2015, millennials will increase in size to 75.3 million and become the biggest generational group.

With immigration adding more numbers to its group than any other, the millennial population is projected to peak in 2036 at 81.1 million, Pew said. Thereafter the oldest millennial will be at least 56 years of age and mortality is projected to outweigh net immigration. By 2050, there will be a projected 79.2 million millennials.

Intuitive Services and Different Priorities

What’s “turning on” millennials, which is innovation, new ways to use technology and a “desire for more intuitive services,” Sieg said, “is going to more rapidly turn on other generations.” That’s why BofA Merrill is “spending a lot of time studying millennials and thinking about them as clients for today and clients for the future.”

Online investing firm Wealthfront’s client base is “overwhelmingly” made up of millennials, Nash added, noting that millennials are “prioritizing differently” from other generations. “It’s not just a sensitivity to fees; they want simplicity and transparency,” he said. “They are not just tech savvy, […] they want to automate the things in their life.”

Prudential’s Parker added that this group of investors grew up in a recession, so it’s not surprising that 52% of their assets are in cash and only 28% in stocks.

Indeed, a recent Northwestern Mutual survey conducted in January of more than 5,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and older found that millennials are a mix between old souls and young idealists, with 64% of them classifying themselves as more inclined to save than spend, and more than half (53%) setting financial goals, compared with 38% of Americans 35 and older.

The survey also found that they’re “realistic,” acknowledging that safety nets like Social Security won’t be there for them in old age, with 73% of those expecting to need to work past age 65.

Yet they’re twice as likely to say their generation is “not at all responsible” when it comes to finances (36% versus 17%), the survey found.