Real value, earlier: engaging younger clients today

Our ‘In Focus’ campaign this month explores how younger generations are reshaping the advice landscape, from where they turn for financial guidance to the expectations, priorities and behaviours advisers need to understand.

Ben Harrison, chartered financial planner at Equilibrium Financial Planning, highlights the case for engaging clients much earlier, before significant wealth has built up, when financial decisions can still have lasting consequences.

Financial advice often only reaches people once they have accumulated wealth. But for many younger adults, serious financial decisions are already being made, and often without independent, expert guidance. Financial pressure is still huge at this stage in life, so it’s a gap that we can’t afford to ignore. 

Our sector needs to make a real push to engage clients earlier. Younger clients don’t necessarily have massive portfolios. However, they are still making decisions with real implications for their future, from pensions and mortgages to student debt and early investment decisions. Making sense of these factors is how we can deliver real value for this cohort and engage them earlier.

The introduction itself can shape how younger people perceive regulated financial advice for years to come. No one wants to feel judged, overwhelmed or sold to, particularly if this is their first exposure to proper financial planning. A younger client who feels respected and leaves more informed is more likely to come back at different stages in their life when needs shift.

As an advice community, conversations should begin with thorough assessments of clients’ goals and objectives at an earlier stage, regardless of asset level.  Conversations that speak to immediate priorities, like managing student debt, building emergency savings or planning for childcare costs, can make advice feel more relevant. Of course, planning for later life is a responsible approach, but engagement from an early stage is driven by addressing the decisions front and centre of mind.

In practice, conversations can encompass all of this. Balancing immediate financial pressures against long-term plans could mean gauging whether younger people should prioritise pension contributions or accessible savings. The sums involved might not match those of older, wealthier clients, but it’s often these decisions that shape long-term wealth accumulation and set clients up for life.

Engaging younger clients means steering clear of unnecessary, technical jargon. They need guidance that is clear, relevant and manageable. Shorter meetings, flexible appointment times, and quicker follow-ups can deliver this. A more streamlined service can make advice easier to access and less intimidating for people without prior experience.

However, streamlining the advice process shouldn’t compromise the quality of service or make the adviser-client relationship feel transactional. Reducing conversations to annual ISA top-ups or pension contribution reviews may lead to younger clients questioning the worth of financial advice. They should still leave with a clear sense of how the decisions of today can build a secure financial future.

For younger clients, that bigger picture is often where the real value lies. A client in their 20s or 30s may assume financial planning is mainly about investing, when the more pressing issue could be income protection or life cover, especially once children, mortgages or shared financial commitments are involved. The same applies to workplace benefits, tax efficiency and everyday cash flow. These are areas where relatively small decisions can make a noticeable difference to confidence and financial resilience in the long run.

Building confidence across these decisions can help form a solid foundation from which investment opportunities become a natural progression. Sometimes, engagement is nurtured by making someone feel that financial planning is understandable and that no question is too simple to ask.

Today, it’s all too easy for the generation that has grown up with the internet to get caught up in the mass of unregulated advice online. The need for clear, regulated financial advice from seasoned professionals is perhaps greatest among those still getting to grips with their finances. 

Younger clients sometimes need a guiding hand to understand which decisions match their situation, rather than leaping to the loudest investment trends online. There’s a real opportunity to deliver value both in terms of client education and sensible decision-making.

The government’s current investment push is welcome, but it needs to be managed with care among younger clients. Encouraging people to invest is one thing, but it’s equally important to educate on which investment options match a person’s wider financial picture and objectives. As an advice community, we need to ensure that noise around investing doesn’t spark a surge in misguided decisions among younger people.

We’re working to help people with limited financial planning experience through our Essentials offering, providing expert financial advice in clear, digestible terms without the need for large existing portfolios.

The younger clients of today are the potential lifetime clients of tomorrow. Engaging them as they begin to think about their financial picture and contend with decisions with real consequences is crucial. Done well, it’s a massive opportunity to showcase our sector’s value in building confidence, avoiding costly mistakes, and creating practical pathways to a secure financial future. 

By Ben Harrison, Chartered Financial Planner at Equilibrium Financial Planning 

This is intended as an informative piece and should not be construed as advice.