What advisors can learn from a music festival teaching financial literacy

When advisors ponder how to teach financial literacy to those younger next-generation clients they are at pains to reach, live music concerts are probably the last thing that comes to mind. But one West Coast-based event this year might change that. 

The WealthFlix High School Nation Tour, which will bring 30 live music concerts to around 60,000 teens across public high schools in the Los Angeles area this fall, is also offering financial literacy lessons, as well as funding for entrepreneurship projects among student clubs and visits from celebrity entrepreneurs. The tour runs from Sept. 11 to Oct. 20, according to an email from a spokesperson. It will offer schools financial literacy assemblies that run 45 minutes long, according to the High School Nation website, and cover topics including banking basics, credit scores, budgeting and saving, and investing. All concerts will be free to students. 

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Notably, 2023 will be the first time the event here is also bringing in celebrities to lead assemblies, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson declined to confirm the celebrities who would be featured in any school events, adding that they are intended to be a "surprise" for the delight of students. WealthFlix, an online learning and networking platform for wealthy entrepreneurs and influencers, counted basketball legend Magic Johnson, actress Ashlee Simpson and celebrity pastry chef Candace Nelson among its speakers at a recent conference. 

"The High School Nation Tour series will include 30 curated courses around business creation, generational wealth and how to obtain funding through investors directly to their campuses across Los Angeles and the surrounding areas," the spokesperson said in an email. Additionally, the event will deliver $60,000 in sponsorship money to student entrepreneurship clubs across the schools toured.  

By putting famous artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs in front of students and engaging them in fun tech-based activities, the event hopes to teach them about wealth-building through a more immersive and relatable method than standard lectures, slideshows or video tutorials. 

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Call it the extension of Swiftonomics, which saw pop superstar Taylor Swift buoy the economies of entire cities and nations with her record-breaking, likely $1 billion-grossing Eras Tour. Stars like Swift — whose father was a longtime broker at wirehouse Merrill Lynch, and whose early supporters include now-outgoing Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman — have wielded immense influence over fans, especially younger consumers who seek to imitate their business success. 

Entrepreneur DuQuan Brown, the co-founder of Future Media (which helped establish WealthFlix), said in an interview that advisors and educators looking to reach younger Americans with financial literacy education can take cues from the High School Nation Tour and learn the importance of presenting information in a fun, engaging manner, that meets the client or prospective client where they're at instead of talking to them from on high. 

"Everyone loves music. When you have a chance to connect through an experience including music, you can learn anything," Brown said, adding that the financial literacy activities would also engage students through games on devices, instead of sitting them in a classroom. 

Too often, those in the financial services industry can come off as intimidating to younger individuals who may not have been born into wealth but may be eager to build it through entrepreneurship, Brown said. "Just give them something that they can relate to. That's it. The financial jargon and different terms, sometimes it may go over their head."  

At stake is the ability of those younger individuals to not only connect with an advisor and provide business for them, but also achieve their personal and collective financial goals in an inflation-battered economy. A 2021 study by the TIAA Institute and the George Washington University School of Business found that Generation Z, which includes today's teens, scored the lowest of all generations in a financial literacy test. 

"A lot of people have not experienced joy, wealth or abundance. Everybody can relate to some type of pain," Brown said, adding that for American youths, that type of pain could start in the form of wanting aspirational material purchases like a luxury bag or car, but feeling unable to budget for those. 

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By asking a student to talk about how they will save for that pair of Jordans, he hooks them and makes the abstract concept of budgeting more meaningful to teach. 

"Start with finding out what pain points they have, what they want to do better, what they want to accomplish in life. And then … give them the tools to step by step get there," Brown said.