OC 500: Jeff Motske

Cerulli Associates, a leading financial services market research firm, projects that more than one-third (35 percent) of financial advisors will retire in the next 10 years. In its wake, the next generation of advisors will inherit roughly $6 trillion of advisor-managed assets. This begets a crucial question: where will the industry find this next generation of advisors? As it stands, only a quarter of today’s advisor population is under the age of 40, according to the CFP Board, and of this, a mere 10 percent are under 35, Cerulli reports.

Why is the industry experiencing this new talent shortage? Of the myriad obstacles, poor industry perception and a lack of necessary structure to engage and mentor promising young leaders are two worth noting. However, they can be overcome with a commitment to understanding millennial preferences in the workplace and investing in the necessary resources to inspire today’s brightest talent to choose financial advising. It’s an investmentthat will deliver significant returns for both advisory firms and their clients.

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It’s human nature to address challenges based on their most pervasive effects, rather than dissect their causes. Take the ongoing discussion about the need for diversity in wealth management as an example. Endless articles have been written about the need to have more women, more people of color and more age diversity in the industry. As one of the white males who too often exemplifies the status quo, I couldn’t agree more with the impulse: the future of financial advice must be more female, more ethnic and age diversified than it is today.

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