Advisors aren't pursuing millennials as clients, despite their potential suitability, and overall, they're expecting client risk aversion to almost double in the next 12 months.
Those are just some of the findings of the third annual Advisor Anxiety Survey from Hartford Funds, which also revealed that 56 percent of advisors, when asked how much they focus on attracting millennial clients, replied "less than other age groups" or "not at all."
But—and it's a big but—70 percent said that they do target clients aged late twenties to early- to mid-thirties.
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In addition, 63 percent of advisors who say they're not targeting millennials at all are also looking within that age group for potential new clients.
So, do advisors understand who millennials are? It appears not.
Although the group is classified as having been born approximately between 1980 and 2000–which means they're in that very age bracket that 70 percent of advisors are targeting–advisors as a group seem to have a blind spot if the buzzword "millennial" is mentioned.
There's another problem with that, too.
Since 71 percent of financial advisors responded that they plan to work for at least another 16 years, and 53 percent are planning on another two decades in the workforce, the fact that they're not focusing on millennials is problematic.
Who will their clients be?
More than half of advisors, the study found, who plan to work for more than 15 more years target millennials less than any other age group or not at all.
Also, 51 percent of advisors who plan to work for more than 20 years say they're targeting millennials less than any other age group or not at all.
Yet millennials will be hitting critical planning milestones over the next decade, and they're going to need help in achieving their goals.
The millennial issue aside, advisors are anticipating that clients will become considerably more fearful of losing their assets. Market volatility is keeping the majority of advisors worried (57 percent), followed by concerns over interest rates (51 percent) and international turmoil and what it does to markets globally (46 percent).
And 57 percent of financial advisors expect clients to become more risk averse in the next 12 months; that's an increase of 22 percent from 2014 (35 percent), and 40 percent more than in 2013 (17 percent).
When it comes to client anxiety about saving and investing, just 42 percent of advisors seem to be concerned, and even fewer—just 32 percent—are worried about bringing in the next generation of clients.
Inflation is the last of their worries, appearing on the radar screen of just nine percent of advisors.
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