Boomer Groups Have Different Needs
There is a stark contrast between the 1st Wave Baby Boomers, ages 57 to 66, and the 2nd Wave, ages 48 to 56, Cogent Research found.
The 2nd Wave of Boomers share more of the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of younger investors than they do of 1st Wave Boomers. Slightly fewer, 63%, of 2nd Wave Boomers are working with an adviser than 1st Wave Boomers (66%), and they are significantly less satisfied (58% versus 69%) with these relationships.
Nearly half (48%) of 1st Wave Boomers are retired, compared with only 9% of 2nd Wave Boomers who have left the workforce. As a result, only 57% of older Boomers still own an employer-sponsored retirement plan, compared with 81% of their younger counterparts.
“The financial services industry has spent the better part of a decade treating Boomers as a single and cohesive group,” said Meredith Lloyd Rice, senior project director at Cogent and author of the report. “For a number of years they were becoming more similar. However, these new findings suggest companies need to take another look and potentially separate how they are addressing the ongoing needs of investors who are today between the ages of 48 and 56, versus how relationships with older Boomers were managed leading up to their retirement.”