Having grown up in successive but very different eras, millennials — people ages 17 to 37 — and Gen Xers, ages 38 to 52, can harbor different concerns and perspectives around investing. For example, a study from Global X found that for 87 percent of millennials, also known as Gen Y, their most important expectation of an advisor was protecting their investments during a market downturn. In contrast, 76 percent of Gen X wanted financial education.
This lines up with the observations of Rob O’Dell, certified financial planner with Coyle Financial Counsel. He also lectures on selling financial services across the generations for research firm Generational Insights.
Gen X tends to be very skeptical, he said. They know things don’t go according to plan. They grew up witnessing the Watergate scandal of the 1970s and watched the space shuttle Challenger blow up in 1986. They were often latchkey kids, with more than 50 percent having divorced parents, which led them to become very self-reliant.
