(Bloomberg Business) -- The investment industry has an age discrimination problem, and millennials and Generation X are bearing the brunt of it. Only 30% of financial advisors are actively looking for clients under age 40, according to a survey of 500 advisors by the research firm Corporate Insight.
Advisors prefer older clients for a simple reason: Most advisors get paid based on a%age of the assets they manage. And typical households in their late 60s and early 70s are far richer than their children and grandchildren, with net worths that are five times that of a median 35- to 44-year-old household. These older baby boomers own 22 times more in assets than those under age 35, Federal Reserve data show.
Even if millennials and members of Generation X can find an advisor who will talk to them, they may well be better off on their own. If you have only $10,000the median net worth of those under 35 it makes little sense to pay someone $300 an hour to manage it.
Still, the investment industry cant ignore younger clients forever. For one thing, retiring boomers are starting to spend down their nest eggsmaking them less profitable for advisors year after year, says Corporate Insights Sean McDermott.
Over time, more and more money will end up in the hands of millennials. And so far they don't see much point in professional finance advice. Only 29% of young workers have looked to professionals for advice, an IQuantifi survey last month showed. Meanwhile, 71% asked family members and 45% turned to friends.
While many advisors ignore people under 40, other investment firms are taking them very seriously. They see a business opportunity in winning over the younger Americans who are actually saving substantial sums.
On May 5, for example, Vanguard Group expanded its Personal Advisor service to clients with more than $50,000 in assets. Previously restricted to clients with more than $100,000, the two-year-old service offers advice to clients via the Web and over the phone for 0.3% of assets per year, or $150 on a $50,000 portfolio.
Vanguards move follows rapid growth by several new online investment advisors, often called robo-advisors, that charge similar fees for automated portfolios. Eleven startup companies, including Betterment, FutureAdvisor, and Wealthfront, were advising clients on about $19 billion at the end of 2014, Corporate Insights estimates. Thats up 65% in the eight months from April to December.
These firms can charge a fraction of the price of a human advisor because technology lets them be far more efficient. But low cost isnt their only appeal, McDermott says. Younger clients also like their transparent fees and easy-to-use websites. In March, Charles Schwab Corp. launched its own robo- advisor service, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios.
Technology wont entirely replace human advisors, says Elliott Weissbluth, chief executive officer of HighTower Advisors. But advisors even ones like HighTowers who specialize in wealthy clientswill need to find ways to incorporate technology and become more efficient, he says. Some big established players are making deals with the new startups. Fidelity Investments and TD Ameritrade have started partnerships with robo-advisors, and the insurance giant Northwestern Mutual bought online planner LearnVest in March.
Despite these trends, just 12% of financial advisors surveyed by Corporate Insight said theyre interested in incorporating a robo-advisor service into their business. In the investment industry, things are going to change faster than people believe theyre going to change, says Weissbluth. If advisory firms such as HighTower dont adapt, he says, We become dinosaurs.
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