What young investors actually want from a financial adviser

The engagement story no one is telling

The dominant narrative around younger investors is that they are independent, digitally self-sufficient, and broadly suspicious of traditional financial services. This narrative is not entirely without foundation. But it is substantially wrong about the most important thing: whether young people actually engage with professional financial advice.

CFA Institute's research, published in March 2026 and drawing on surveys across six major wealth markets, found that 92% of Gen Z and 89% of millennial respondents use some form of financial advice or planning service. Both figures are higher than the 76% of Gen X and 80% of baby boomers who reported using advisory services.

Younger investors are not turning away from professional guidance. They are engaging with it at rates no previous generation has matched. The challenge for advisers is not attracting them in principle. It is understanding what they expect when they arrive.

Collaboration, not delegation

The clearest generational shift in expectations is the move from delegation to collaboration. Previous generations tended to approach a financial adviser the way they might approach a solicitor or a consultant: here is my situation, tell me what to do. The relationship was one of expertise on one side and deference on the other.

Younger clients approach it differently. They want to understand what is being recommended, why it suits their circumstances, and how it connects to the wider goals they have for their life. They want to be educated through the process, not simply directed. The CFA Institute survey found that Gen Z and millennials are significantly more likely than older cohorts to select "educates and empowers me to make financial decisions" as a top priority in choosing an adviser.

This does not mean they want to make every decision themselves. It means they want a relationship built on informed participation, not passive acceptance. Advisers who treat clients as capable adults and explain their reasoning tend to earn the loyalty of younger clients more reliably than those who present conclusions without context.

How trust has been redefined

Trustworthiness and ethical behaviour remain the top priority for every generation when selecting a financial adviser. That consensus is unchanged. What the research reveals is a meaningful difference in what trust actually means across generational lines.

For older clients, trust is substantially built through the quality of the personal relationship: an adviser who takes time to understand their life, communicates openly, and whose fees feel proportionate to the value delivered.

For younger clients, trust is more functional. The CFA Institute survey found they place greater weight on:

• Data security — reliable measures to protect personal and financial information
• Performance — generating returns at or above target benchmarks
• Credentials — professional qualifications from recognised industry bodies
• Conflict-of-interest transparency — clear disclosure of how the adviser is remunerated and where interests might diverge
• Access to alternative investments — the ability to invest across a broad range of asset classes

None of this makes empathy or personal connection irrelevant. It means that for younger clients, those qualities are expected as a baseline rather than treated as a differentiator. Competence, accountability and digital integrity are where trust is actually built or lost.

The frequency of contact younger clients expect

Around 70% of Gen Z and millennial investors with a financial professional engage with them at least monthly. A quarter communicate weekly, and 11% are in touch daily. Among high-net-worth younger clients, daily contact is even more common, with 19% of high-net-worth Gen Z respondents interacting with their adviser on a daily basis.

These figures are substantially higher than for older generations, where quarterly contact is more typical and considered sufficient by most clients. The gap is not simply about preference. It reflects a different relationship with information: younger investors live in an environment of constant financial news, social media commentary and market updates. They expect their adviser to be part of that ongoing conversation, not an annual checkpoint.

The channels they prefer reflect this. Alongside in-person meetings and telephone calls, younger investors strongly favour video calls, private messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and text messaging. The research found this preference is particularly pronounced in India, Singapore and the UAE, where messaging apps have become the default communication medium for professional as well as personal contact.

Where robo-advice fits

43% of Gen Z and 41% of millennial respondents use a digital or robo-advisory service. The straightforward interpretation is that younger clients are substituting automated advice for human advice. The research does not support this.

Among millennials, the dominant pattern is using both in parallel: a robo-advisory service for certain functions alongside a human adviser relationship. The two are complementary rather than competitive. For Gen Z, digital advisory tools often represent a first point of engagement with investing, before a more formal relationship with a human adviser has been established.

This suggests a practical approach for advisory firms: integrating accessible digital tools into their service offering, rather than treating them as competition, is likely to be more effective at capturing younger clients at the start of their investment journey and retaining them as their wealth and complexity grow.

Life events as the trigger for engagement

Two thirds of Gen Z and millennial investors who currently have a financial adviser began that relationship after a significant life event. The most common triggers were receiving an inheritance, buying a first home, a career change, starting a family, and getting married.

More than half of those without an adviser said a similar event would prompt them to seek one. This has a practical implication for firms thinking about client acquisition: younger people are not hostile to professional advice, they simply have not yet reached the moment that makes it feel necessary. Advisers who can be visible and accessible at those trigger moments, through content, referrals and community presence, are better placed to capture relationships at exactly the point when they are most likely to form.

What would cause them to leave

The top three reasons young investors cited for changing financial professionals were high fees, lack of communication or responsiveness, and an underperforming portfolio. All three also ranked highly for older generations.

Where younger clients differed was in the additional reasons they cited. They were more likely than older generations to consider changing advisers because of a data or confidentiality breach, because the firm's technology did not meet their expectations, or because of limited product availability or investment style. The message is clear: for younger clients, the basic relational expectations must be met, but digital competence and product breadth are meaningful retention factors in a way they are not for older clients.

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