8
For Advisor Use Only
March/April
2014
Gen Xers fall squarely between their baby-boomer parents
and Generation Y, or the millennials—the oldest of whom
are just hitting their early 30s. In general, they exhibit
qualities from each of the other two generations; as a result,
there is no magic solution that will work for all of them.
This makes it even more critical to meet them where and
how they want to be met, and it necessitates a new type
of flexibility in your service offerings.
There are three ways of looking at the Gen X market:
•
A hassle that isn’t worth your time
•
A way to protect assets you already have from
leaving you in “the great wealth transfer”
•
A new business opportunity
It’s a perfectly savvy strategy to be selective and target
certain clients’ kids and avoid others like the plague.
Helping Your Clients Help Their Children
When it comes to talking to their children about money,
you can likely split your client base into three groups:
open, reluctant, and closed.
Open clients
are those who have already educated their
children about money and who talk fairly openly with
them about it. These clients don’t need nudging, but
they could use a checklist of age-appropriate topics to
ensure that they’ve covered the bases with their children.
In addition, they would probably be eager to hear that
you are open to having some light conversations with
their children to help ensure that they are on the right
track. These are the clients with which to start because
they’ve already laid the groundwork for you.
Suffice it to say, if you want your clients to refer their
children to you, you need to figure out what help your
clients think their children need. What are they nervous
about? What reservations have they expressed regarding
their children? Finding ways of responding to those needs
will help you add value to your client relationships.
The second group is your
reluctant clients
. These individuals
know at some level that they should—and will eventually
need to—have financial conversations with their children,
but they haven’t done so yet. Something is holding them
back. It might be a fear of their own money ignorance, of
letting their children know how much they may be passing
along, or of conflict or tension between them and their
children or between their children, each of whom might
have a different financial situation. These clients will take
a bit more handholding, but the rewards can be huge.
In addition to forming relationships with their
children—which essentially makes you the logical advisor
to them in the event of an inheritance—providing this
service makes you unique among your clients’ friend
groups. Leveraging the situations properly can result in
increased referrals to their friends (i.e., your ideal clients).
Connecting with Generation neXt
KOL BIRKE, CFP®, AND LORI YAVERBAUM
Of the younger generations that are poised to become the clients of tomorrow,
you may find Generation X (Gen X), which includes people born between
approximately 1965 and 1979, to be a business opportunity you shouldn’t
ignore. But how can you reach them and develop relationships?
Wealth Management
/ Planning
One of the primary goals of effectively
servicing your Gen X clients is to capture
the eventual wealth transfer from their
parents (i.e., your older clients).
