How young top female consultants are taking a multigenerational approach to connecting with clients

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The youngest advisors in Canada’s Top Women’s Wealth Advisors ranking say their age has never been a barrier to landing new clients. On the contrary, they use their age to their advantage with their young and old customers.

Rosemary Horwood, a 34-year-old portfolio manager and investment adviser at Rosemary Horwood Wealth at Richardson Wealth Ltd. in Toronto, has found that younger clients relate better to those not too far off their age.

Ms. Horwood remembers her post-graduation days vividly and remembers her attitudes and values ​​back then.

“I remember the challenge of just being able to afford life and more precious things in general,” he says. “I think one of the big things back then was deciding the best timing for big purchases.”

She also says younger clients appreciate a professional who is encouraging and avoids creating fear.

“I’m not an adviser who’s going to send out headline update emails with things that will scare people,” Ms Horwood says. “As much as it’s about being open and honest about what’s going on in the world, that doesn’t mean I have to tell stories from a negative perspective.”

Instead, Ms. Horwood spends extra time in her schedule working with younger clients on investor education and various financial concepts.

“It’s just something a lot of advisors aren’t ready or willing to do,” he says.

Ms. Horwood’s client list includes not only younger clients, such as high school and post-secondary students, but also 90-year-olds and every generation in between. He says older clients value having an advisor who won’t outlive them and retire, leaving them to adjust to a successor. They also like having a junior advisor advise heirs in the wealth transfer process.

Younger customers looking for a connection

Megan Deeks, senior wealth advisor at The Deeks Financial Group at CIBC Wood Gundy in Toronto, says younger advisors can be more adept at intergenerational planning, especially when dealing with younger clients. Mrs. Dix, who is 39, and her husband helped her grandmother prepare a meal for her children and grandchildren. They conducted a financial literacy course for the whole family.

“There was a beautiful marriage of intergenerational assets,” Ms. Dix says of the family reunion. “But there was also some mentoring of young people to be more financially literate and involved with their money.”

Holding these events also gives us a greater opportunity to build deeper relationships with our customers, he says.

“It really strengthens that relationship when you’re involved in much more of their lives than just their investment accounts,” he adds.

Ms. Dix says she finds that younger customers are especially looking for that connection. They want to work with someone who will meet them where they are with their goals and not congratulate them on their own beliefs.

“Not all customers are the same, and we have to cater to what works for them and what they need,” he says.

Ms. Dix took over her retiring father’s practice and bought another book from a retired female counselor who wanted her successor to be a particularly young female counselor.

Adopting a multi-generational approach

Lily Hao, an investment adviser at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in Vancouver, an investment adviser at Brezer, Vos, Mandell, Reems and Hao Wealth Management Group, built her book using what she says is an underserved market. He serves new immigrant families from mainland China who have international tax and legal nuances and need to transfer their wealth from one generation to the next in their new country of residence.

“These clients require a lot of multigenerational planning because things are so different in a new country,” said Ms. Hao, who immigrated to Vancouver when she was a teenager. Now 40, he met many of his clients from his days as a bank teller at another financial institution.

Ms. Hao also has a multi-generational approach to her personal life. After three years of giving birth, she grew up and ran her own business. In order to manage her home and business, the mother moved in with her and her husband to help with the children.

Technology also helped him make customer communications more efficient. Ms. Hao notes that younger consultants are often quicker to adopt new technologies and can more easily teach their clients how they work.

He says he adopted more digital practices long before the pandemic made electronic signatures and video calls more common.

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