Millennials shut out of advice, survey says

The results of the Investing in Millennials study, conducted by Zaptitude, found that more than 70 per cent of some 400 Millennials surveyed believe no financial products or services currently exist that cater for their generation.

When it came to suggestions for developing financial products and services for Millennials, responses varied from introducing more education to greater assistance in goal planning and execution to volunteering and community incentives.

Other respondents suggested making a game out of financial goals through a savings app that rewards users for achieving certain savings goals.

The survey also asked Millennials what they believed were the ideal personality traits a financial expert should possess.

Sixty-eight per cent of respondents believed ‘having a sense of humour’ was important, followed by ‘simplifies the complex’ at 66 per cent and ‘casual/relaxed’ at 48 per cent.

‘Technical/detailed’ was important to 29 per cent of respondents, with ‘wearing a suit’ and ‘serious’ bringing up the rear at 26 and 16 per cent respectively.

Zaptitude co-founder Peita Diamantidis spoke about the results of the survey yesterday at the Zurich Auditorium in Sydney, saying it was horrifying the financial services industry was missing out on such a massive segment of the Australian public.

“What’s interesting about Millennials is, not only do they feel that the financial services industry – I’m talking accountants, advisers, fund managers, banks, insurance companies, all of it – speak in some alien language that they’ll never understand, they also think that unless they have kids and buy a house that we think they are invisible,” Ms Diamantidis said.

She said financial services professionals need to stop assuming they know what is best for the public and to start asking them instead.

“We need to literally ask what they want and we deliver it. I know that sounds obvious, but I don’t know that there’s that many feedback sessions that our industry does.

“I don’t know that that ever happens. We need to do more of that.”

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].