The Crisis Of Financial Noise—And How To Stop It

Americans have never had greater financial means and wealth than today.  They’ve also never felt more anxious or unclear about what to do or how to manage their money.  Exacerbating this challenge is the growing crisis of financial noise.  “FinTok” and “info-tainment” influencers continue to amass swipes and clicks by pitching “hacks” and can’t miss investment tips, but they’re also compounding fear, confusion and skepticism.  Add to the mix elevated economic uncertainty, it’s no surprise that there’s an epidemic of financial anxiety in America.

While the need is great, there’s an inadequate number of financial advisors—a shortage expected to reach 100,000 by the year 2034, according to McKinsey.  Moreover, of today’s financial experts, too few choose to engage young adults as potential clients.

The necessity for trusted financial education for younger generations has never been greater. There needs to be an unprecedented effort to equip them with deeper financial planning know-how and skills.  As private sector pensions wane and the future of Social Security continues to be cloudy, at best, the burden to financially prepare for tomorrow will increasingly fall on their shoulders.

But there are reasons for optimism.  Younger generations are starting to recognize the stakes and take action.  According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study, more than 80 percent of Gen Z’ers and Millennials say their financial planning needs improvement, and over a quarter worked with a financial advisor for the first time in the last year.

In an environment that’s increasingly void of trust, the time is now for leaders and organizations to act to restore it.  Here’s how…

Let’s start engaging younger Americans.  Many financial professionals avoid working with young people until they’ve amassed a certain level of wealth assets to invest. That’s more than a missed opportunity; that purposeful disregard fosters mistrust in the system.   As a result, too many people believe that financial advisors aren’t for “people like me.”  The financial services industry must do more to intentionally engage prospective clients in their 20s and 30s.

At Northwestern Mutual, this has always been and remains a priority.  The average age of our new clients is 31. Not only that, the vast majority of the financial plans we’re creating are for prospective clients under the age of 40—comprehensive plans that will grow wealth, address uncertainty and protect what they’ve built.  We’re tailoring our marketing to speak to younger generations, and we’re recruiting and developing financial professionals—more than 5,000 in 2025 alone—who understand, share and care about their life experiences.

If done across the board, Gen Z and Millennials could have more time in the market benefitting from good financial habits and compound interest—along with greater access to more affordable insurance products while they are likely healthier.

Let’s facilitate generational wealth conversations.  According to Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study, Gen Z chose “my parents” as the most trusted source of financial advice—just ahead of financial advisors.

This is an opportunity for the financial services industry to lean in, with multigenerational wealth planning meetings involving parents and young adult children.  Done well, these conversations can be comfortable, trustworthy and judgement-free, involving the most credible messengers in young people’s lives—their parents and a neutral, informed advisor—mediating and instilling powerful lessons and habits that can endure.

They’re also opportunities to address the noise and guide young generations toward proven, reliable financial strategies.  Northwestern Mutual advisors have hosted thousands of these generational planning discussions—and we expect their popularity to soar in the years to come.

Let’s personalize the financial planning experience.  In this environment, it takes extra effort to build trust and overcome skepticism.  In order to do both, we have to move beyond transactional, impersonal experiences.  If we want people to seek out our advice instead of turning to TikTok, we have to start by asking better questions and engaging on a more personal level.  People are more than their balance sheet or potential AUM. 

At Northwestern Mutual, we’ve built our business on long-term relationships with clients.  While our average new client age is relatively young, we keep and ably serve clients for decades as their wealth grows and their planning needs become more complex.  The early stage of the relationship serves as the beginning of a partnership for life.  And by earning trust that endures, we have tremendous client loyalty that drives our historic financial results.

Let’s take a long-term view.  Attention-grabbing headlines foster concern—and sometimes, people’s fears and emotions can lead to poor decision-making and suboptimal outcomes.  As more people become exhausted by breaking news, we have an opportunity.  Long-termism can become the antidote and an appealing counter-culture.  While speed still matters—more than ever in an AI world—financial services companies have an opportunity to separate themselves from a sea of sameness by also prioritizing longer-term planning and long-term solutions that span the arc of their clients’ lives.

Leaders and businesses across all industries should act now and seek out intentional strategies to close the trust gap they have with younger Americans to cultivate their next generation of customers.  By addressing these challenges head-on, the financial services industry can help ensure the $90 trillion great wealth transfer to come strengthens financial security across generations.