A generation gap is looming in the financial services industry. As baby-boomer advisors retire over the next decade, their younger colleagues will be left to serve an aging clientele — which may well require some adjustments on the part of these younger professionals.

First off, young advisors cannot assume their older clients share the same focus as they do. They will be faced with adapting to the style, pace and perspectives of an older generation. They will have to develop an affinity for older clients.

“We grew up in different times,” says Peggy Grall, a 57-year-old business transition coach in Milton, Ont. “And what’s important at 35 may no longer be important at 60 or 75. Young advisors may have to make a concerted effort to attune themselves to their older clients.”

Alain Quennec, a 37-year-old advisor at Rogers Group Financial Advisors Ltd. in Vancouver who works largely with 55-plus clients, sees a big gap in style and focus between 30-something advisors and older investors.

“Some of my new clients have told me that the young advisors they worked with in the past were too aggressive for their comfort level,” he says. “One woman of 63 said her advisor had put her into income trusts and equities with which she was not comfortable.”

Certainly, an issue of particular concern to older clients is preserving capital to pass on to their heirs. “Investment risk is a big concern,” agrees Patrick Mulcahy, a 39-year-old advisor with Dundee Private Investors Inc. in Bradford, Ont. “A lot of these people were just about to retire when the dot-com crash took place, and they really felt the shift in the markets.”

Nevertheless, he notes, “You have to encourage older clients to make investments that will survive inflation.”

Grall would also remind young advisors not to view pace as an indicator of intelligence.

“Just because older people are slowing down physically does not mean that their thinking is slowing down,” she says.

And younger advisors shouldn’t confuse the different generations of people who are over 50, she adds: “People who grew up in the 1930s value stability and safety. “The boomers, those born between 1947 and 1965, value success and the status symbols of success.”

The young advisors likely to make the transition to serving older clients more easily are those who are now part of a team that works with older clients.

Take Mulcahy, for example. He is working toward the day, perhaps three to four years down the road, when his father, Michael, retires from the business.

“It’s a slow transition that involves attending client meetings with my father and getting to know his clients,” he says. “And for those clients who really prefer to deal with him, Mike intends to be there for them after he retires.”

Quennec feels he has always had an affinity for older people. Like his older clients, he finds himself leery of working with many clients who are closer to his own age because of their attitudes and expectations.

“They expect me to act more as a broker and less as a planner,” he says. “I do have some young clients, of course, but they’re mostly the children of older clients and they have the same expectations as their parents.”

Here are some ways you can help narrow the generation gap:

> Don’t show off. Older boomers and their parents, Grall notes, didn’t grow up with computers. “So don’t try to dazzle them with technology by flipping open your laptop and constantly checking your BlackBerry,” she says.

“However, when I’m meeting a 30-year-old client, I might do this on purpose, she adds. “Through this body language, I’m saying that I understand them and I am willing to meet them on their ground.”

Attempting to dazzle with what you may know is also a turnoff, adds psychologist Judy Turner in Toronto: “People get the feeling that you’re not interested in them.”

> Be attuned to your client. “Young people are often full of what they know and have to say,” Turner says. This might work against them. Young advisors need to attune themselves to their older clients’ comfort level.

“A young advisor may be more comfortable dealing with clients online, but an older client may want to meet face-to-face or at least hear a voice on the telephone,” she says.

@page_break@Ask the client how he or she would prefer to communicate.

> Slow down. “Today’s young people tend to talk really quickly, probably because they’re on the computer all day,” Turner says. “When you’re dealing with investment concepts, you have to take the time to make sure clients understand.”

Grall adds: “Remember the acronym WAIT — why am I talking? — before you open your mouth. Check what you are about to say.”

> Listen. Active listening, Turner says, means getting a feeling for the person you’re with, which, in turn, gives that person the feeling that you understand what he or she wants and needs.

“I enjoy hearing my older clients’ life stories, and I think it shows through,” Quennec says. “A person of my generation has to be willing to listen, to spend plenty of time getting to know clients and carefully explaining concepts to them so they can go away feeling safe. It’s not good enough to pat their hands and say, ‘Trust me’.”

> Acknowledge experience. “Your older clients have money, so they have obviously made some good decisions along the way. Show your respect,” Grall says.

Quennec marvels that one of his older clients, who recently sold his home in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver for $888,000, bought the land and built the house himself for about $10,000.

> Be willing to learn. Working with older clients can be a great mentoring experience, Grall says. “View these relationships as gifts, not people to be tolerated. You’ll want to schedule extra time for older clients, not because they have trouble grasping what you are saying but because of the learning opportunities they provide for you.”

Adds Quennec: “Many young people are not temperamentally suited to working with older people. They’ll probably mellow, but it may take a good 10 years.

“There is going to be a big shake-up in the industry as the boomers start working with young advisors,” he says. “The boomers won’t put up with advisors who are focused on transactions, not relationships. They’ll change advisors, although they may be disappointed again.

“It will be a wonderful opportunity for advisors like me.” IE



Narrowing the gap


Intergenerational relationships are extremely important for older people, says psychologist Judy Turner in Toronto.

“The wider an older person’s social fabric, the better it is for that person’s physical, mental and emotional health. But the older we get, the fewer people of our own generation are around, and the more important friendships with younger people become,” she says.

We should be cultivating these relationships throughout our lives, she notes, but there are ways in which older people can befriend younger people.

“Schools always need people to read to children,” she says, “and new Canadians need help with their language skills. Older people can feel really useful teaching English and explaining how things work in Canada on a volunteer basis.”

Relationships with younger professionals can also be nurturing to older clients, adds Peggy Grall, a business transition coach in Milton, Ont.

The younger advisor who is genuinely interested in an older client will be a welcome addition to the senior’s social circle, she says.

And the younger professional who is willing to learn from older clients will give these clients a sense of value and self-esteem — at a time in their lives when

they may feel a lack of productivity and diminished status because they are no longer in the workforce.