White Paper

Gen Y Is Ready To Invest… Are You Ready To Advise Them?

Executive Summary

Eighty million members of Generation Y (Gen Y), also known as Millennials, are fast entering the financial services marketplace in the United States. Born from 1977 to 1995, these children of Baby Boomers have a mindset and approach to financial services that are uniquely different than potential clients in other generations.

Members of Gen Y communicate differently. They have different priorities for their lives and their money. They even refer friends and family differently. They don’t trust their parents’ financial professional just because the professional has successfully helped their family for decades. Instead, they gather information in their own way and will judge a professional or firm by what they consider important.

On the flip side, Gen Y brings the greatest lifetime value of any generation in the investment marketplace. They’re now entering the life phase in which they’re selecting financial professionals and brokerage firms for the first time. The challenge is that many financial professionals market their services in the same way that they, themselves, like to buy. But Gen Y makes buying decisions differently than other generations.

Because this emerging population of investors is ready — or getting ready — to open new accounts, the brokerage firms and financial professionals who successfully adjust the way they market their services will, of course, gain a short-term advantage. But simultaneously, they’ll secure a long-term foundation of increasingly wealthy clients who can grow with them for decades. The firms and professionals who choose not to adapt to Gen Y’s style will find themselves frustrated by this emerging generation. In other words, if they give hyper-connected, forever-online Gen Yers a four-page, printed brochure, they’ve already lost them.

In this white paper, Jason Ryan Dorsey, Chief Strategy Officer for The Center for Generational Kinetics (The Center), and First Clearing will reveal what investment firms and professionals need to know and do right now to make the most of Gen Y’s client potential. We’ll address:

  • Understanding Gen Y. Who are they? How is this new generation different from previous ones?
  • The Opportunity. Does Gen Y have money to invest now? Would it better to wait to approach them?
  • Engaging Gen Y. How can financial professionals transform the challenge Gen Y may pose into a breakthrough opportunity? Our insights are based on the latest generational data, in-the-field experiences, and best practices honed by The Center’s emerging trends team.