Chapter 9: Millennials: The New Generation Of Wealth Management Clients

According to US Census Bureau data, Millennials will be in a ‘Position of Peak Profitability’ between 2022 and 2055. This means that in the United States this generation will be the largest profit contributor for the business sector during this period. In other demographically younger regions, such as Africa and Asia, Millennials have already become the primary sources of corporate profit.

Who are the Millennials and why are they called so? Millennials are people being born in and after 1982. This makes them people who have or will become adults in the ‘current millennium’.

Why is there so much attention focusing on the needs of this generation? Large corporations across industries and continents have focused over the past decades on the needs of the Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers, the name given to the Post World War II baby boom, are the parents of the Millennials, and have contributed to the periods of peak profitability for past decades across the world. In most large corporations, marketing channels, customer communication, pricing, product development, segmentation and positioning are still explicitly or implicitly focused on the Baby Boomers, This has to change in order for incumbents across traditional industries, including banking, insurance, wealth management and asset management, to remain relevant and profitable in the decades ahead of us.