Millennial and Generation Z clients are much different from their parents and grandparents in the financial world. They don’t want paper reports anymore. They don’t want to come in for a visit. They may not even want to meet face-to-face over coffee or lunch. So, what do Millennial and Gen Z clients want from their wealth managers? And how can you give it to them?
First, it’s important to know that these younger clients are still interested in their finances. They are intelligent and have more resources at their fingertips than ever before. Most still want help managing their wealth and need professional consultation and judgment.
There’s an inordinate amount of wealth that’s being transferred right now from parents and grandparents to these younger Millennial and Gen Z populations. The biggest concern for banks and people in this industry is, how do you keep those clients in place? What are they looking for? How can you meet their needs, so they don’t switch financial institutions?
Mobile Access to Wealth Management
One of the most important benefits that Millennial and Gen Z clients want from their wealth managers is autonomous, mobile access to their finances.
That’s it. They want to be able to do their banking by phone, they want to pay bills by phone, and they want to do their budgeting and financial planning by phone. They want to manage nearly every aspect of their financial lives with their mobile phones, on their time.
There are plenty of mobile apps that will let them do that, not to mention every other facet of their lives: finding apartments, paying rent, applying for jobs, budgeting, financial planning, ordering food, paying their bills, and on and on.
These young Millennials and Gen Z clients have grown up with mobile devices. They use them for communication, entertainment, and information gathering. Their entire lives are on their phones.
Mobile access to banking and financial planning is so important to young clients that they will switch financial institutions and wealth managers if there is not a mobile option available to them.
They also expect their wealth managers to use the same mobile technology to report to and communicate with them.
Numerous mobile apps and web-based applications are available to banks and financial professionals. These apps take the heavy and tedious work off their hands — like analyzing data, creating custom products, and making decisions — so the professionals can focus more on developing relationships and handling more complex tasks.
CheetahGO for You; Accunet for Your Clients
We developed CheetahTM and CheetahGO to help trust and wealth managers manage their workload to better serve their clients.
CheetahGO is the mobile companion app for CheetahTM. The CheetahGO app is currently available to all CheetahTM users at no additional fee. CheetahGO allows 24/7 on-the-go access so trust administrators may: manage tasks; review account information; approve transactions and trades; and record activities while meeting with clients and prospects.
We have also developed a modern client-facing portal called Accunet. It allows our clients to drive their financial conversations themselves. They can check their account performance and request transactions directly through the app, rather than calling for a report or setting up a meeting.
And we’re working on a messaging tool within the app, so if someone has questions, they can message us, and we’ll respond on the same channel. They don’t have to call in, they don’t have to set up a meeting, they don’t even have to send an email. They can send a question to their administrator and receive an answer in the same way.
Convenience = Happy Clients
Ultimately, what Millennial and Gen Z clients want from their wealth managers is convenience. They want to be able to check up on their money, access their funds, make transfers, and check their financial health. But they also want to know that they can talk to someone immediately if something goes wrong.
That means that while they may not have the meet-once-a-quarter for lunch relationship, they at least want the kind of relationship with a bank to get their information quickly and easily. That’s why mobile apps are so important.
The goal is not to disconnect from the client or their wealth manager but to make things more convenient for them by providing autonomy. And by doing this, the wealth manager can manage more clients, handle more relationships, and — thanks to the banking apps — provide deeper insights into financial performance, provide reports, and find information much faster.
The world has gone mobile, including banking and wealth management. To keep up with your younger clients, you must meet them where they are. You can’t expect them to work as their parents and grandparents did. That means providing mobile access to their money, but more importantly, managing their money in the same way and with the same tools. If you would like to learn how to use mobile technology to make your work easier and to keep your Gen Z and Millennial clients happy, please visit our website and schedule a free demonstration.
Authored by: Cam Dowless, associate technical product manager for Accutech Systems Corp.
