Although banks and credit card companies have done a good job of pursuing Generation Y'ers, other investment firms, including mutual fund companies, have largely ignored them, Dow Jones Newswires reports.
They ignore these 70 million Americans born between 1977 and 1997 at their own risk, experts say, because many of them are highly ambitious, intend to become rich and are ready to heed the call of investing.
But winning Gen Y'ers over will not come without its challenges, the biggest of which is convincing them to pare down their spending to begin saving.
Three ways consultants advise investment firms to succeed in attracting the business of Generation Y is by reaching their parents, approaching them while they are still young and appealing to their realization Social Security may not exist by the time they retire.
In fact, 62% of Gen Y'ers do not expect Social Security to be solvent by the time they reach 65, more than a third plan on beginning saving for retirement before they are 25, and 70% of those who are eligible to contribute to their 401(k) plan do so.
"We think approaching college students and new entrants into the work force is very important for investment firms, primarily because they're untargeted," commented Matthew Josefowicz, author of a 2003 Celent study called "Gen Y College Students, Financial Services and the Web."
