Many younger do-it-yourself (DIY) investors still value financial advice from a human financial advisor, despite the rise of roboadvisors, according to J.D. Power’s Canada investor satisfaction survey, released Thursday.

In fact, younger DIY investors were more likely to indicate they wanted to speak with a financial advisor in the next 12 months than older respondents.

Gen Z and Gen Y were most likely to say they wanted to engage with a human advisor (39% and 38%, respectively). That compares with 26% of Gen X and only 20% of Boomer or pre-Boomer respondents, and 31% of DIY investors overall.

“Younger DIY investors are more likely to seek the advice of a financial professional than their older DIY counterparts,” said Kapil Vora, senior director of wealth intelligence at J.D. Power, in a release. “Very few of those investors say there is sufficient information online to gain investment expertise… Illustrating that technology alone is insufficient to bridge the gap between information and genuine investment confidence.”

While interest in advice is higher among younger investors, traditional wealth management firms in Canada are disproportionately skewed toward older investors. Only 20% of investors under age 40 are at traditional wealth management firms and 28% are at banks, compared to 48% at fintechs.

Advised investors happiest with National Bank

The survey also revealed the 2025 investor satisfaction ranking index for advised and DIY investors. National Bank Financial came in first for advised investors, scoring 730 out of a 1,000-point scale, compared to the segment average of 658. Edward Jones followed in second place at 696 points and iA Private Wealth was third with 692 points.

Wealthsimple led satisfaction for the DIY segment with 727 points, followed by Desjardins Online Brokerage at 655 and Questrade at 644. These top three firms were also the only companies to score above the segment average of 627.

TD tied for last place with Scotiabank for advised investors at 635 points. TD Direct Investing also came in last for DIY investors at 577 points, with Scotia iTRADE only scoring two points higher.

The J.D. Power Canada investor satisfaction study has been redesigned this year to combine the former  Canada full-service investor satisfaction study and self-directed investor satisfaction study. It is based on responses from 4,311 advised and 2,417 DIY investors and was fielded from October through December 2024. J.D. Power defined generational groups as Pre-Boomers (born before 1946); Boomers (1946-1964); Gen X (1965-1976); Gen Y (1977-1994); and Gen Z (1995-2006).