A new survey finds some interesting generational differences in how couples work with their advisors.
More than six-in-ten (61%) Millennials say that one partner primarily interacted alone with their advisor, compared with 49% of Generation X couples and 40% of Boomers.
Moreover, younger investors tend to form stronger relationships with their financial advisors and are more likely than their older counterparts to say that their financial advisors know personal information about them, including their pet’s name, their personal values and their charities of choice.
According to a TIAA-CREF Asset Management Survey of more than 1,000 Americans, younger investors also appear to be more open to having their financial advisors teach money skills to their children; roughly two-thirds (63% of Generation Y investors and 66% of Generation X investors) said they would be “very likely” to accept such an offer, compared with only 39% of Boomers and 29% of seniors.
Younger investors are more likely to say that they share the same vision for their investment portfolio as their significant others — 58% of Generation Y (age 21 to 36) couples versus only 37% of Generation X (age 37 to 50) and 28% of Boomers (age 51 to 69). Yet, in an apparent contradiction, they are actually less likely to make financial decisions jointly than older generations; fewer than one-in-five (18%) Generation Y couples reported making joint financial decisions, compared with 42% of Generation X couples and 44% of Boomer couples.
According to the survey, while more than nine out of 10 couples say that communicating with their partners about finances and investing is as easy as deciding on where to go to dinner, more than half (60%) entrusted one partner to make most of the financial decisions. Furthermore, when hiring a financial advisor, 41% did not even include their spouse in the decision making process.
