Fewer than 1 in 5 U.S. investors use parents’ advisors

Only 19% of Americans use their parents’ financial advisor. Worse, the nine in 10 investors who use a different advisor didn’t even consider their parents’ advisor, according a report from Boston-based Cerulli Associates released Tuesday.

Cerulli found that while 41% of those under 30 stick with their parents’ advisors, that number falls to 31% for the 30–39 age range and 19% for the 50–59 demographic. Those relationships may have started as a “marriage of convenience,” but advisors have an opportunity to create long-lasting relationships with their clients’ children, research analyst John McKenna said in a release.

The advisors who succeed in doing so often receive higher praise: of the investors who remained with their parents’ advisor, 96% said they would recommend them, compared to 86% of those who used a different advisor than their parents.

The younger demographic’s mobile nature makes them more likely to switch advisors unless the firm gets to know their financial needs, the report said.

Although many financial advisors don’t target investors still in the wealth accumulation stage, doing so would be a “path of least resistance” for both clients’ children and the advisory firm.

“With an increasingly affluent millennial demographic, advisors cannot afford to squander such business-expanding opportunities,” McKenna said.

The results came from a digital survey of about 850 people who were asked about their parents’ advisors in June.

Jonathan Got

Jonathan Got is a reporter with Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. Reach him at jonathan@newcom.ca.