A new survey finds that Millennials are three times more likely than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers to rank an employer’s retirement plan as the most important factor when taking a new job.
A couple of caveats apply. First, we’re still only talking about 15% of Millennials (versus 5% of Gen Xers/Boomers). And second, the survey is of so-called “mass affluents.”
According to the Merrill Edge Report Fall 2016, those Millennials are most likely to plan to hire a financial advisor within the next five years (31%) compared to any other generation, and are the most open to receiving financial advice online (42%).
That’s true even though most (70%) of Millennial respondents describe their investment approach as “hands on” (compared to 60% of all respondents, though Gen X came in at 72% in this category). They are also most likely to describe their investment personality as “DIY” – with nearly one-third (32%) making their own rules when it comes to investments, compared to 19% of all respondents.
The only person the majority (54%) of respondents feel comfortable discussing their current retirement savings with is their spouse or partner, with their financial advisor a distant second (39%), just ahead of their family (36%). Only 22% would confide in their friends, and Joe in the lunchroom’s opinions notwithstanding, only 6% would do so with their co-workers – perhaps because, even with their own insecurities about retirement, they think they are doing better than their:
- friends (43%);
- co-workers (28%); and
- spouse/partner (27%).
Respondents in the study were defined as ages 18 to 34 (Millennials) with investable assets between $50,000 and $250,000, ages 18 to 34 with investable assets between $20,000 and $50,000 and an annual income of at least $50,000, or ages 35-plus with investable assets between $50,000 and $250,000.
