Posted on by Sheena Gillett

Press Release 

PIMFA Millennial Report 2017 Launched 

15th November 2017

Following on from the highly successful debut Millennial Forum last year, PIMFA1, the leading trade association for the personal investment management and financial advice sector in the UK, launched their 2017 Millennial Forum report today.

A full copy of the Millennial Report 2017 is available here.

The report is written by Millennials about Millennials – consisting of work from 22 Millennial staff from PIMFA member firms with an array of job roles and industry experience.  The initiative, supported by HM Treasury, divided the forum members into 4 groups to look into themes relevant to the overall question of how we attract, engage and retain millennial clients. The groups conducted primary research and gathered expert opinion from within the industry on intergenerational wealth, costs and barriers to investment, promotion of the industry and the impacts of technology.

As a result of the further ideas and research questions raised in the 2016 WMA Millennial Report, the overall aim of this year’s research initiative was to provide recommendations for the industry, regulators and government that will help contribute to their future strategy.

The report gives insights into Millennials’ perspectives on the challenges they perceive related to planning their financial futures – such as higher property costs and reduced pension pots alongside the opportunities around forging long term relationships with future inheritors, wealth-builders and auto-enrollers.

Particularly, the Report found that while Millennials are digitally competent and expect that functionality as a norm, they highly value face to face advice above purely technological investment solutions.  This led to a recommendation for bionic/hybrid advice solutions that can offer the best service to Millennials while remaining cost-efficient, as initial investable amounts may be small. This has the added benefit of creating a development pipeline for future clients who can utilise face to face advice as their situations in life develop and change.

The report also illustrates Millennials openness to the sharing and use of their personal data, as long as it can be proven to be secure and have tangible benefits to them. Financial education was another theme that rang throughout the report and one of the 4 groups recommended various forms of empowering individuals and informing financial decision making – from more effective use of social media, gamification and the potential for a cross industry initiative to provide material for an independent educational website.

Following its merger and launch in June, PIMFA will launch a new forum in Q1 of 2018 to look at issues across the wider membership – concentrating on both wealth management and financial advice issues.

Liz Field, CEO at PIMFA, said: “PIMFA are proud to launch our 2017 Millennial Report today. This is the product of months of work by our Millennial Forum members, staff, industry experts, and our Millennial Council.  We strongly advocate for building a culture of savings, investment and professional advice in the UK and as such, it is important to understand the diversity of our client base.

Societally we are now experiencing a new phenomenon of five generations working side by side. Defining the overall differences of Millennials to preceding and proceeding generations is critical to developing an understanding of this cohort as both a future generation of investors and also as a new talent pool. Once we better understand Millennial perceptions and how to engage with them, we are better equipped as an industry to help them with building their personal financial futures”.

Read the 2017 PIMFA Millennial Report 2017 here:

ENDS

Notes for Editors 

About PIMFA – the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association

  • PIMFA is the UK’s leading trade association for firms that provide investment management and financial advice to everyone from individuals and families to charities, pension funds, trusts and companies.
  • We represent both full and associate member firms.
    Full members provide a range of financial solutions including financial advice, portfolio management, as well as investment and execution services. They assist everyone from individuals and families, to charities and pension funds, all the way to trusts and companies.
    Associate members provide professional services to the PIMFA community.
  • PIMFA leads the debate on policy and regulatory recommendations to ensure that the UK remains a global centre of excellence in the wealth management, investment advice and financial planning arena.  Our mission is to create an optimal operating environment so that its member firms can focus on delivering the best service to clients, providing responsible stewardship for their long-term savings and investments.
  • PIMFA was created in June 2017 as the outcome of the merger between the Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) and Wealth Management Association (WMA) – read more.

 

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