High-earning millennials 'don't know what to do with their money'

Ramin Abrams has been “slaying” the game of wealth management. After all, his success comes from carving out a niche working with young, high-earning millennials through Gen Z.

The industry is moving fast and advisors, like Abrams, are keen to keep up, as the great wealth transfer moves to take place and advisors grapple with serving the next generation.

The wealth advisor, affiliated with Concurrent Advisors, based in Tampa, Florida, has made it his mission to guide HNW Millennial and Gen Z clients through the complexities of wealth management.

“I just saw the rise in content creators and the exponential revenue that these young earners are making and saw a void in terms of the support that they're receiving,” says Abrams. “I became really passionate in making sure they have guidance, a team and someone they can trust.

Abrams is quick to acknowledge the income streams for younger generations look vastly different than previous cohorts, noting that this niche of clientele and young adults have essentially become business owners through the digital age.

"We're looking at 18- to 22-year-olds that have an incredible following through endorsement deals and sponsorships," he explains. "They're even developing their own merchandise and doing drop shipping through companies like Shopify, to really create this incredible enterprise."

These young entrepreneurs, who are often content creators, actors, dancers, models, and video gamers through platforms like Twitch and YouTube, can be earning anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000 a month in cash flow through various income streams.

However, Abrams notes that the disconnect is that "they don't know what to do with the money.”

“In many cases, before I'm brought into the conversation, they're sitting on enormous idle balances, sitting in a checking account, earning 0 percent interest,” he says.

He emphasizes that most educational institutions aren’t focusing and prioritizing the concepts of financial literacy. Young HNW earners with master's and bachelor's degrees aren’t coming out with the knowledge, experience and depth of everyday finances, like understanding what a check book is or understanding compound interest, he highlighted.

“The first step is identifying the family values that can be passed down to the children, and having a group conversation on that,” he says.

That’s why he chooses to conduct family dynamic meetings with parents and children at a young age. These meetings typically include setting up Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UTMA) and 529 accounts and encouraging parents to provide work opportunities for their children to earn money that can be invested.

Abrams’ holistic approach is setting up the foundational accounts these kinds of clients need in “three buckets”: taxable, he lists as, checking and savings and brokerage accounts; retirement, which consists of IRAs, SEP, IRAs DB plans and 401(k)s; and real estate, like a primary residence or rental property.

“I always like to tell younger clients, ‘We want money to be your slave’,” he says. “We want to set you up with the resources and the structure for you to be able to achieve your goals. They really resonate with that.”

Abrams' passion for this niche stems from his own background. At just 30 years old, he has nearly a decade of experience in the financial services industry, having worked at firms like AXA Equitable, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.

He saw an opportunity to leverage his youth and familiarity with the next generation to provide a personalized level of service.

"As a younger advisor, I have the experience to partner with families and wealthy clientele, but I also have the warmth and comfort and familiarity to bridge that conversation with the younger people," Abrams says.

Abrams encourages advisors to allow the kids of clients into the financial planning conversation.

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“They don't need to know what the portfolios are worth or what the trust documents say but let them leverage their relationships with successful and experienced advisors,” he says. “Not a lot of advisors tap into the children in conversations because they're just so focused on the primary client.”

“When you're looking at 15, 20 and 25-year-olds, they have the most valuable asset in any investment, which is time,” he added.

Name: Ramin Abrams
Position: Wealth advisor
Company: Concurrent Advisors
Founded: 2017
AUM: $9 billion