Advisers can capitalise on the ‘sandwich’ generation

Millennials are time-poor and demand a different kind of relationship with their financial advisers, one that is mainly digital in nature and caters to their unique needs, certified financial planner and the founder of the Savings Squad Podcast and My Money Buddy, Adele Martin, said.

But snagging a Millennial client comes with multiple rewards, none more appealing than the impending wealth transfer that will see this “sandwich generation” inherit over $3.5 trillion.

“They’re [Millennials] going to get the inheritances, but even before the inheritances, they have to deal with putting their parents maybe in a nursing home. That’s very complicated, they don’t know how to do that. Looking at their own situation and thinking how long are they going to need to work, thinking about their kids and wanting to help them buy a house, how are they going to do that and still retire themselves? They’ve got a lot of issues that they need help and support with,” Ms Martin explained.

Advisers are now widely looking to tailor their offering to suit this technologically savvy audience and while the to-do checklist can at times appear overwhelming, Ms Martin believes it’s about picking one thing and perfecting it.

“Pick one thing, the one thing that you think is going to be the easiest for you to implement or that’s going to give you the biggest time saving,” Ms Martin said on a recent episode of the ifa podcast.

For her, that’s online calendar bookings.

“If you can automate the reminder process, the text messages, ask questions as part of the online calendar booking process, capture that data and information straight away, if you can do that, that saves hours,” she said.

She stressed the importance of developing the right mindset and overcoming the can’t-do attitude.  

“The thing which I’m just really conscious of is the stories that we tell ourselves. As financial advisors, or if we’re particularly older, we might be telling ourselves, ‘I’m not good with technology. This is hard’. If you start to tell you something enough, you start to believe it,” Ms Martin cautioned.

To hear more from Ms Martin tune in here.