CPA Wealth Provider, the magazine for CPAs who are now in, or want to enter, the financial planning world is in its fifth year and as each issue goes by, the call for financial planning gets even louder. Now, according to a new report from Spectrem Perspective, a strategic consulting firm that specializes in the retirement markets, what are called "Barely Boomers" requires advisors with a broad range of skills.
Barely Boomer? That's the group who at ages 40 to 45 now represents the youngest of the Baby Boomer generation and according to the "experts" in the field, has even more sophisticated financial needs than their older siblings.
For example, the study shows that one-third of Barely Boomers hold stock options and some 30 percent hold restricted stock, much higher than the Baby Boomers. And if you look at asset allocation, these folk have some 31 percent of their portfolios in real estate. In fact, a higher percentage of affluent Barely Boomers hold hedge funds, private equity, and futures investments than the other Baby Boomer segments for each asset class.
What this means is that the financial service provider out there is faced with a rather unique opportunity to serve an extremely affluent end of the market. The needs of the Barely Boomers are usually targeted at saving for education together with retirement; they need to do it all. In fact, according to Catherine McBreen, managing director of the Spectrem Group, "The needs of Barely Boomers, unique among the Baby Boomer generation, present both a challenge and an opportunity for those who can meet these requirements."
You might keep this in mind, too: A higher percentage of Barely Boomers choose accountants (19 percent), independent financial planners (24 percent), and investment managers (19 percent) as their primary advisors than the other Baby Boomer segments.
Actually there are approximately 700,000 affluent Barely Boomers in the U.S. with more than $500,000 in investable assets, says Spectrem. Of this group, some 88 percent claim that their primary investment strategy is building wealth rather than preserving it, and 85 percent have set aside a portion of their assets for more speculative or higher risk investments.
Incidentally, if you are interested in this report, visit the Spectrem Web site at
