The Bureau of Labor Statistics has indicated that financial advising jobs are projected to grow 32% between 2010 and 2020. This will result in the addition of 64,000-plus jobs during that time frame.
Good news to be sure. A driving factor behind this growth in jobs is the increased demand for financial advice, which is being fueled in part by the 75 million baby boomers readying for retirement and by Gen Xers coming into their own with their wealth.
Add to that the fact that the industry is going to be dealing with the retirement of existing advisors and the need to replace them. Many, if not most, of these newly created FA positions will be filled by younger college graduates, also known as “Millennials.”
This youth movement will have a profound impact on how firms go to market in search of both clients and in their advisor recruitment efforts. Today’s college graduates and young professionals do not utilize traditional media like their predecessors. They have come of age in an era of technology, where they access the Internet via smartphones, watch video online and communicate via text messaging and social media.
Addressing evolving media consumption behaviors and closing the digital gap will be crucial to financial advisor firms in the future. For more on this, see Cliff Campeau’s January 15th article for Financial Advisor: “How Do You Go To Market?“