Pre-boomers using advice professionals the most

Almost half of Pre-Boomers or those born before 1946 had purchased super, managed funds, or any kind of wealth management product from a professional adviser, well above the level of all other generations, Roy Morgan research has shown.

These professional advisers include all types of financial planners/advisors and accountants, Roy Morgan said. The research also showed that the client base of these professional advisers were mostly people over 40.

Only 7.4 per cent of Millennials who had any type of wealth management product obtained it from a financial professional, being much more reliant on their employer, Roy Morgan said. Generation Z showed a similar picture, with only 4.1 per cent purchasing from a professional.

Nearly one in three Baby Boomers with a wealth management product purchased it from a professional. However, they still relied much more on their employer, with 68.4 per cent doing so.

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Generation X also relied more on their employer when purchasing one of these products at 83.8 per cent, Roy Morgan said, compared to only 17.0 per cent for professionals.

Roy Morgan industry communications director, Norman Morris, said this research showed that with only around one in six obtaining their wealth management products through a finance professional, there was a big opportunity to expand their use.

“The challenge for professional advisers and wealth management customers is how to provide advice to low value customers and how to get them more involved in a topic of little interest to them,” he said.

“With the employer generally being the major channel for obtaining wealth management products, due to the dominance of superannuation, it is unlikely that they will have the resources to provide comprehensive financial planning advice - this is the role of the financial professional.”