Want to attract young clients? Learn to speak emoji 🧠 😃 💸

By John Forcucci

I’m a boomer. My generation didn’t use emojis. At least, not the online kind. About the closest we came to them were icons that we all recognized that were used in graffiti or on flags.
Like the peace sign, or the Rolling Stones’ icon. Or this guy.

Generation Y, commonly known as the millennials, and Generation Z have left us in the dust. They have entire vocabularies of emojis. What’s interesting, though, is that the two generations interpret some of the emojis differently.

For example, take the skull emoji. There are more than one. The one I have in mind is this one.

According to dictionary.com, this emoji was added in 2015 and millennials used it in a “lighthearted way … usually to indicate playful exhaustion.”

Gen Z, says the site, is more likely to “respond to a joke with a line of skull emojis, intended to mean ‘I’m dying of laughter’ or ‘I’m dead from laughing.’”

Most likely, most of those reading this column haven’t realized that subtle difference between the generational interpretation of emojis.

How is this relevant to financial advisors, you might ask?

Well, understanding these generations — and the nuances in their differing needs and preferences — is the best way to build relationships and provide financial services to them.
Gen Z, for example, intends to retire early, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2022 Planning & Progress Study. They were most likely to concentrate on their savings during the pandemic and to begin working with a financial advisor. The study also showed these young adults were more confident about their careers and in their ability to achieve financial security.

Gen Z is also interested in having more investment and retirement options. For example, more than a third of them wish they could select environmental, social and governance investments, and nearly as many say they’re interested in fractional shares.

About half of Gen Z (52%) and millennial (48%) workers — my older daughter being one of them — are using their health savings accounts to save for future health care costs in retirement, and more than half are investing their HSAs in mutual funds and other types of investments.

These younger generations are also facing different obstacles in their investment planning than we older boomers are. While rising costs and market volatility continue to cause concern for all workers, Gen Z and millennial workers are more likely than older workers to cite unexpected expenses, education costs and supporting family members as obstacles to saving for retirement, according to a Schwab Retirement Plan Services study.

According to Linda Chavez, the founder and CEO of Seniors Life Insurance Finder, her firm takes a different approach to each age group. For example, with Gen Z investors, they are likely to focus more on digital solutions and take a more hands-on approach to engagement. Gen Z investors are used to having access to information instantly at their fingertips, she explained, so financial advisors should provide them with tailored online advice and mobile apps that allow them to see their portfolios in real time.

Millennials, she said, are more interested in planning for their future and making sure their financial decisions are aligned with their life goals. “Our advisors take the time to really get to know our millennial clients and discuss how they can use investing strategies to work towards their long-term objectives.”

I have found these differences in the ways my daughters approach their savings and investments.

My older daughter, the millennial, uses the tried and true — i.e., older — methods through her employer, like a 401(k) and HSA, for example. However, my younger daughter, while still in grad school, used an online savings app that had built-in access to savings advisors/counselors.

Having just graduated in May, she was able to save significantly while going to school and working a part-time job.

Both, of course, check out services and advisors online, especially via social media. Establishing a presence and building the beginnings of a relationship on those platforms — especially through financial education — are essential to reaching these generations. Though favoring apps and social media, younger generations do want a component of human advice amid the electronic do-it-yourself services. I know — a shocker.

So, delving into the particular wants and needs of each of these generations — and the individual members of these groups — will be the way forward to building a younger client base. Each of these younger generations is intent on savings and investing, and, of course, will reap the inherited wealth of the older generations. All important incentives to learn to speak their language — even if that language is emoji.

John Forcucci
Editor-in-chief