Cohen: Pay attention to millennials

Millennials are a fast growing group with a lot of money that mutual fund firms are just starting to go after. What are best practices to serve this audience?

That was the premise of a panel at the Cohen Fund Services conference entitled, "Diversity Inclusion, Generational Trends and the Impact on the Future of the Asset Management Industry."

The thinking is this:

• Parents will transfer their wealth to this group in upcoming years.
• A large percentage of this demographic already has significant wealth from parents or their own efforts.
• It's time to start engaging with this group to attract long term investors and employees.

This session focused on current and anticipated changes in the marketplace and workforce. It also looked at the impact on the traditional marketing, sales, hiring and human resource management practices in the asset management and professional services industries.

SunStar's Dan Sondhelm provided the perspective of marketing to millennials.

Jennifer Brase, Ryan Kramer from Northwestern Mutual and Hallie Sly from Cohen spoke about recruiting. 

"The expertise of our panel members brought an unparalleled level of insight to these issues,” said panel moderator Randy Myeroff, CEO of Cohen & Company — Cohen Fund Audit Services’ affiliated firm. “The information provided was no doubt invaluable to everyone in attendance.”

From a product perspective, millennials like investment products that are simple, such as target date funds. They also want to give back through impact or socially responsible investing. Low fees are important.

They want to be engaged online. They want to work with a firm that also communicates through social media or digital channels.