Clients are bringing TikTok insurance advice into advisor meetings

These days, social media outlets, like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, are flooded with financial advice.

Many so-called experts are sharing insurance tips that may or may not be accurate, often leaving clients confused and misinformed.

“It used to be that a client would repeat something a cousin or a coworker told them. Now they just pull out their phone and hand it to you: 30 seconds, two million views, some random guy talking fast,” said Marcus Wiseman of RFM Digital, a company that builds AI, content, and automation systems for individuals in insurance and financial services.

Unsurprisingly, a study by the Swiss Finance Institute and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed 39,000 financial influencers, or “finfluencers,” and found that viewers may actually be better off doing the opposite of what they recommend.

As an advisor, you should be aware that your clients may be consuming incorrect insurance and financial advice. That way, you can prepare yourself to properly distinguish credible information from potentially misleading recommendations.

Common insurance misconceptions

Some common insurance misconceptions come up on social media more often.

“Many of these influencers say that whole life coverage is a scam and tell viewers to just buy term life insurance and invest the difference,” Wiseman explained.

Then, there's a whole genre treating infinite banking or indexed universal life like it's a personal checking account you borrow against.

On the flip side, you’ll find plenty of blanket advice to “never buy an annuity,” along with claims about tax-free retirement that don’t always explain the assumptions or conditions required for the strategy to work.

The pattern underneath all of these myths is the same.

“A complicated product gets boiled down to one sentence you can remember, and the sentence travels because it's simple. Not because it's true,” Wiseman added.

In a perfect world, clients would do their research to determine whether the advice they found on social media is actually valid.

In many cases, however, that’s not the case. It’s not uncommon for a client to trust an influencer they saw and take their advice without confirming if it actually makes sense for their unique financial situation.

When this happens, Wiseman recommends simply asking them why the video, image, or text stood out to them.

“Don’t attack it. Find out why they think it will help them or fix a problem they may have,” Wiseman explained.

Hitting a nerve

More often than not, the advice a client saw on social media hit a nerve, whether it’s about not needing life insurance, avoiding annuities, or using a particular insurance strategy to build wealth or generate retirement income.

Remember that while you can't out-argue an algorithm, you can out-care it.

“Figure out the worry first. Next, walk through where the video's actually right, where it left important information out, and how their own situation changes the answer,” Wiseman added.

Also, recognize that you won’t win on information alone. Compete on relevance, context, and trust instead.

Being accurate matters, but accuracy by itself won't hold a client like being visible and willing to explain concepts in plain language will.

“The advisors handling this well are making their own content, answering the questions clients are already Googling, and becoming a familiar face before the next viral video shows up,” Wiseman said.

The point isn't to stop clients from watching financial content. It's to get them watching and thinking, "I should ask my advisor what this means for me."

Ultimately, when an advisor stays quiet, somebody else gets to shape how that client thinks.

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