How deep do generational divides go? While goals and risk tolerance will impact your clients’ preferences, their generational affinities may have a surprisingly outsized impact.
Different generations see different investing opportunities and approach wealth creation from a variety of perspectives. Seemingly typical goals, like retirement or home ownership, are prioritized differently across different generations.
Even preferences for asset classes can vary depending on when you were born. A recent report on wealthy Americans, for example, found that 28% of investors aged 21 to 43 perceived crypto investments as a high-growth opportunity, while just 4% of investors aged 44 or older saw the same outsized potential.1
Despite these marked distinctions, many advisors still get locked into a single approach to advice across all their clients, regardless of their generational preferences or characteristics, explains Julie Littlechild, founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement, a firm focused on boosting engagement between advisors and their clients.
As advisors take on more responsibilities and fine tune their workflows, they need to be intentional about their communication, recognize generational preferences, and invite feedback whenever possible, says Littlechild, in this lightly edited excerpt.
Julie Littlechild, Founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement: “The greatest gift an advisor can give is helping their clients articulate things like goals. Advisors can give their clients space and ask the best possible questions, so that clients can actually walk away from the conversation with a better definition of what their future might look like. We assume it's easy. It's not.
Too often, we see advisors who have focused so much on experiences and processes that they have stopped listening.
They’re saying, “Here are the things I'm going to discuss in my meetings and here's the follow-up.”
They've worked hard at removing friction and creating efficiencies — and that’s a great thing — but sometimes you stop hearing what people need to talk about.
Creating that space… is a very different approach to agenda-setting, and something that'll become increasingly important.”
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1 https://ustrustaem.fs.ml.com/content/dam/ust/articles/pdf/2024BoA-PB_Study_of_Wealthy_Americans.pdf