With the oldest members of Gen Z approaching 30, the protection industry faces a crucial question: is it ready to engage the next generation of clients? Jade Rodgers, Marketing Executive at Cirencester Friendly, explores how changing expectations around communication, technology and customer service are reshaping what younger clients want from advisers and providers.
The oldest members of Gen Z turn 30 next year. This means many of them will have built the foundations for their careers and are likely to be in or have had long-term relationships. They are gaining responsibilities and have things that they want to protect.
This makes them of huge interest for the protection industry, but is the industry set up to firstly grab their attention and then persuade them of the value we can offer?
It would be difficult to say a resounding yes to this question. Firstly, look at the ages of financial advisers. The average age is 52, and a quarter of them are over 60.
This means they are at a very different life stage to those in their 20s. While of course they can remember what it was like to be young and the challenges they faced, the world has changed enormously since then. Gen Z have grown up in a digital, hyper-connected world, with information at their fingertips whenever they want it. This is very different to what life was like even a few decades ago.
While advisers have experience on their side and are likely to have a deep knowledge of the products they offer, what they may struggle with is using the communication channels younger people rely on.
AMI’s Protection Viewpoint 2025 research found that more than half of advice firms don’t use social media at all and 85% of advisers don’t have a personal presence on social media. This means they are simply not likely to be operating in the spaces frequented by younger generations.
41% of Gen Z bypass traditional search engines like Google and go straight to social media to find what they are looking for.
This means if they were to go on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, it is highly unlikely that they would search for financial protection and find anything from a financial adviser. Instead, they are far more likely to find ‘finfluencers’, who are unlikely to have the specialist knowledge about protection that many financial advisers possess.
How about providers? Well, many of these do have social media channels and have diversified their content creation, using more accessible formats such as videos and infographics to meet a wider range of people.
However, only a handful are on TikTok, and it is far from a key focus of their marketing efforts. As Gen Z matures, it is crucial that providers review their marketing mix and make sure their content is placed in the right channels to meet the needs of a younger audience.
When it comes to customer service, Gen Z also has different preferences to older generations. 65% say they are uncomfortable making a phone call to a stranger.
This compares to 47% of millennials and 42% of those in Gen X. This means calling with a query on a policy or to make a claim is likely to fill younger people with dread.
This is why it is crucial that both advisers and providers offer a range of different ways for customers to get in touch. Email remains the preferred way to contact customer services for Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X, but live chat is fast growing in popularity. 15% of Gen Z and 21% of Millennials say this is how they like to reach customer services.
People have become used to getting answers to their questions instantly, so live chat is only likely to grow in popularity over the next few years. It’s vital that the industry keeps track of these preferences and keeps developing their propositions to remain relevant for all their customers.
To reach younger audiences successfully, the industry needs to understand them, their needs and their behaviours. Making a concerted effort to recruit people in this age group through apprenticeships or graduate schemes will help with this process.
Encouraging younger members of staff to share their experiences and ideas to bring fresh thinking into organisations will go a long way to ensuring they evolve to meet the needs of the next generation of customers.
