IRI: Many millennials would pick Oprah for financial advice

Other key findings from the report:

• More than a quarter of millennials are banking on either winning the lottery or receiving gifted money to fund their retirement years – 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

• When it comes to expenditures in retirement, 70 percent of millennials think they will spend less than $36,000 per year – 30 percent less than the current national average, $46,757, for those aged 65 to 74.

• The majority of millennials, 56 percent, believe they will not be able to retire when they want to, with half this group thinking they will never be able to fully retire.                    

• When it comes to working with a financial professional, 62 percent of millennials would like an advisor to walk them through every step of the retirement planning process, and 87 percent said it is important that an advisor be willing to meet them in person. Only 19 percent of millennials said they are likely to use a robo-advisor.

• About half of millennials (48 percent) would pick Warren Buffett to be their financial advisor, and 32 percent would choose Oprah Winfrey. By contrast, 77 percent of boomers selected Buffett and 15 percent picked Winfrey.

• Half of millennials believe they will be financially supporting their parents as they age.

• Millennials are more likely than boomers and Generation Xers to cut off their children financially at age 18.

But many in the industry agree that when it comes to millennials, education is key.

As Mary Mack, president of Wells Fargo Advisors, said at the IRI Annual Meeting happening now in Charleston, “If we can capture millennials early and teach them, it accelerates the opportunity we have.”