Showing respect and the fast passage of time to millennial clients

Travis D. Manning, CFP, CLU, has seen increased engagement from many millennial clients. The eight-year MDRT member from Caledonia, Ontario, Canada, also recognizes the importance of respecting the knowledge they have.

“I’ll say, ‘I’m sure you’ve read about this; let me know your understanding of it,’ and I think they really respect that I want to hear what they know,” he said. “I’m not just saying, ‘This is what I know because this is what I do every single day.’”

Encouraging the dialogue

This applies even if some of the information is wrong, in which case Manning will tell the clients they have a great understanding while pointing out the elements that are just a little different than how they were described. “I really encourage them to engage in dialogue with me because they feel like they’re part of the process,” he said. “They want to feel validated and not that someone thinks they’re a dumb kid.”

While some millennial clients may think the idea of retirement seems distant and unnecessary to plan for now, Manning communicates how fast life can go by. He recently attended a friend’s wedding and was startled to realize that meeting him in college meant that they’d been friends for 20 years. “I tell clients, ‘That’s going to happen to you,’” he said. “You might already think of the people from high school and that they never change, but five years have already gone by. That’s how retirement happens. Five, 10, 15 years go by so fast you don’t realize it’s happening. So you’ve got to start thinking about it now.”

Hear more in the December episode of the MDRT Podcast:

[soundcloud id=’363490406′ height=’false’]

Written by Matt Pais, MDRT Content Specialist