Millennial advisers see technology as key to winning clients

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They are more than twice as likely as baby boomer advisers to beef up web sites, mobile technology, cybersecurity.

Perhaps not surprising since they don’t remember a time when digital devices weren’t part of their lives, nearly three-in-ten millennial advisers (29%) say that adding new technology is the most important thing they will do over the next 12 months to enhance the profitability of their practice.

That’s roughly three times more than the 11% of baby boomer advisers who plan to do the same.

According to Nationwide Advisory Solutions‘ fifth annual Advisor Authority, millennial advisers also are somewhat more likely than boomer advisers to increase their use of mobile technology (25% vs 19%), over three times more likely to make enhancements to current websites and/or client portals (20% vs 6%), more than twice as likely to offer robust cybersecurity procedures (12% vs 5%) and more than twice as likely to leverage robo-advisers or other digital portfolio allocation tools (12% vs 5%).

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The survey of more than 1,800 investment adviser representatives, financial advisers and individual investors conducted online by the Harris Poll found that boomers are far more likely than millennials to say that the top way technology helps them provide better service is to free up time to focus on one-on-one relationships with clients (38% vs 26%). Millennial advisers, by contrast, are more than twice as likely as boomers to use technology to engineer investing strategies for better returns (21% vs 9%).