Let’s be direct. Wealth management is in the midst of a full-blown talent emergency. Granted, this isn’t breaking news—lights have been flashing red on the industry dashboard for years. The median age of a financial advisor is now 56, which, to extend the aviation analogy, means the cockpit crew will be eligible for retirement before the plane even finishes boarding. According to a 2025 McKinsey report, by 2034, we’ll be short about 100,000 advisors.
When young people with degrees in finance, business or psychology are given a sense of purpose and support, they meet and often exceed expectations.
The good news? We can fix this. But only if we’re bold enough to rethink how we bring new talent into the field.
Millions of freshly credentialed college grads are wandering the job market tarmac looking for a career with purpose, a decent salary, and ideally one that won’t crash on takeoff. But instead of welcoming them onto the plane, the wealth management industry has them on standby.
Our firm is taking a different approach. We’ve gone to college campuses to recruit and then mentor Gen Z talent early and meaningfully.
Holistic training. When I left my consulting career at Deloitte in 2012 and joined a broker-dealer, I loved the work but saw the industry’s recruitment model relied too heavily on experience over potential. So when we founded our firm in 2019 we flipped the script by making recruiting on college campuses a significant strategic priority.
We’ve found that when young people with degrees in finance, business or psychology are given a sense of purpose and support, they meet and often exceed expectations.
We quickly realized that technical training alone wasn’t enough. Yes, we teach our advisors the core competencies of financial planning, investment strategies, and client service. But more important, we’ve designed a model that focuses as much on whole-person development as professional development. This makes the experience intrinsically valuable for young professionals, even if they end up leaving wealth management.
The key is building a culture that invests in talent early but at the same time recognizes that these are young adults we’re hiring—smart, driven, but often still learning how to manage money, time and relationships.
Every new recruit is assigned to a team composed of advisors at various tenure levels who are always available to answer questions about client meeting prep, financial planning complexities or to role play tough conversations. This kind of structured support builds not just skill but resilience.
And it works: One of our earliest hires—fresh out of college with zero client experience—is now in a leadership position managing $145 million in client assets and helping to guide others starting their careers.
Compensation model. Let’s talk about money. We don’t offer high starting salaries, but we don’t leave grads financially unsupported either. Our compensation model offers a forgivable draw or advance, and an optional base salary in year one, which we find rewards activity and effort that sustains long-term growth, not just immediate revenue.
By year two, advisors shift to a full revenue-share model and start becoming self-sustaining. We cover typical early expenses (compliance, insurance, real estate) for the first three years to reduce financial pressure. This allows young talent to build a sustainable practice in five years, not 15.
Is it a risky path for a young advisor to take? Perhaps. But calculated risk creates resilient professionals. Young advisors don’t want hand-holding, they want to grow and contribute. It’s our job to give them the systems and culture to do exactly that.
Wealth management doesn’t have a decade to get this right—Gen Z won’t wait around. This generation is hungry to grow and ready to get to work. We just need to give them a better way in.
Travis Penfield is the founder and CEO of 49 Financial, an independent financial planning firm he launched in 2019 after serving as an executive vice president in the industry. A millennial and a graduate of Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, he lives in Austin.
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