As we approach the ‘Great Wealth Transfer’, it’s important to connect with the next generation of clients. Whether you hope to connect with your client’s adult children or attract new millennial clients, it’s imperative to position yourself for the transition now.
Research from Fidelity finds that 58% of Gen Y & Z investors expect to inherit assets in the future and since Gen Y (millennials) are currently the largest demographic group in Canada, ignoring this group completely is a mistake.
It’s important to remember that this doesn’t need to become a big undertaking or time commitment on your part. You still need to be focusing on your current clients. However, if you plant a seed now with this generation, when the time comes, they will know what services you offer when considering who to appoint as their trusted advisor.
What you are currently doing to engage your clients in their 50s, 60s or 70s isn’t going to work the same for a 20, 30 or 40-year-old and that’s okay. Being aware of the different wealth planning priorities and life events that younger clients are going through will help you cater your communications and conversations to things that really matter to them. Millennial clients are also used to seeing engaging content in short quick snippets and respond well to videos and infographics. You need to find reliable content sources that they will engage with online or through targeted communications.
Most of the time this means that the advisor takes on the client’s children as clients. This is the best way to help the entire family, but giving these clients the attention and service you provide your top clients may not be the best for your business in the short run. The best way to leverage your time now is to provide education using engaging content to this client group. This can be done on a one-on-one basis or delivered to a bigger audience using automated email campaigns. In the future, when these clients become profitable, you will have already built a relationship and trust, increasing your ability to retain them.
Not only are younger clients able to relate more to a financial advisor their age but they also know that it will be a long-term relationship. If you are already part of the next generation of advisors you are set, use this as your competitive edge. If you are a seasoned advisor, this could mean anything from creating your own succession plan and bringing in a younger advisor or hiring someone to look after this division of your business.
Think about how you can go more digital in your offering. Ensuring that clients can access statements and key information at any time on the cloud is the first step. It’s important to look at your relationship with technology, not as an enemy, but as a partner. How can you leverage technology to make your business more productive, more interactive and more systematized? Some great tools include AdvisorFlow, for easy client onboarding and EstateBox for digitizing your client’s estate plan. The more you embrace technology for your business the more capacity you will have to take on new clients and the more attractive your offering to potential clients will be.
Your online presence says a lot about how you do business and the types of clients you work with. Start by making sure that your website is up to date. Next, ask yourself, is your social media doing what you need it to do? Then start to create a consistent social media presence. This needs to be a representation of yourself and your business. When one of your clients or professional partners refers to your business, potential clients will go to Google, look at your website and scan your social media profiles. They will try to get a feel of what type of clients you help and what services you offer.
It’s never too early to start catering your business to the next generation of clients. The longer you wait the bigger the gap will get and you may not be able to catch up with your competitors. If you systematically approach this generation now, you can position yourself as their key advisor. Not only will you keep generational assets in your business but you will also likely find yourself in a position to attract even more ideal clients.
HeyAdvisor is a digital content library that financial advisors leverage to connect with their clients. The highly engaging educational library of videos and infographics is white-labelled with advisor branding and can be integrated into email marketing campaigns, websites, client portals and social media. The intuitive library is grouped by life events making it easy to add value to the client relationship at times in their lives that matter most. Review our plans here.
