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It’s easy for senior firm leaders to misread their younger talent. They hear various questions and automatically read into them a lower commitment level. They see a different prioritization of work-life balance and assume less drive. They see impatience and take it as entitlement.
But that’s far too simple an assumption – one that’s often rooted in blanket inter-generational biases. The truth is, the next generation of advisors aren’t rejecting ambition. They’re rejecting vague ambition. And it’s a distinction that very much matters.
The next wave of potential leaders aren’t just asking, “What’s the job?” They’re asking, “What can I expect to become here?” Unfortunately, however, that’s a question many firms simply aren’t well-prepared enough to answer.
How Next-Gen Advisors View Work Differently
Deloitte’s 2025 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey – focused on the generations who will make up nearly three-quarters (74%) of the global workforce by 2030 – found that only 6% of respondents say their primary career goal is to reach a leadership position. Instead, 89% cite finding ‘purpose-driven work’ as their primary goal.
When it comes to selecting a firm to work for, learning and development are the top criteria for choosing an employer. Additionally, 59% say that developing AI skills will be important to their career advancement.
In short, they’re seeking a mix of money, meaning, and well-being – while building technical and human skills for the future. Not surprisingly, this drastically changes the talent conversation.
The old bargain was often unspoken. Work hard. Learn by watching. Be patient and opportunities will come. While that may still work for some people, it’s no longer sufficient to serve as your firm’s full talent strategy anymore. The next generation wants the future made visible. Not guaranteed, but visible. And there’s a big difference between the two.
A visible future says, here’s how you grow. These are the things you’ll need to learn and who will help to develop you. Here’s how your role can expand and how your compensation can change. This is what leadership looks like at our firm, and how client trust gets transferred. Here’s how we expect AI to reshape your work and how we’ll prepare you to leverage it. And this is how your contribution connects to the noble work of helping clients and families.
That’s not coddling people. It’s leading them.
Why Your Firm Needs a Better Frame for Next-Gen Talent
Of course, the next generation is looking for flexibility, compensation, and title progression. Those factors will always matter. The deeper issue, however, is identity. They’re trying to get a clearer picture of the kind of professional they can become inside your firm.
- Associate advisors want to know if their career path will lead to becoming a lead advisor, a planner, a business developer, a relationship manager, a partner, or a permanent support person;
- Client service professionals want to know if your firm sees them as administrative support or as future operations leaders;
- Young managers want to know if leadership means authority, service, ownership, or all three; and
- Future partners want to know if ownership opportunities are real, symbolic, financial, cultural, or unavailable.
Unfortunately, vague answers to these critical questions all too often lead to quiet exits. To combat this, think about using your next leadership meeting to create a future conversation for every high-potential next generation employee.
Not an annual review or a compensation negotiation, but a structured conversation about direction that answers five critical questions:
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What are you learning here?
This question matters considerably more than a decade or two ago because learning has become an important retention lever. If an individual is busy but not growing, the firm is consuming their energy without expanding their future.
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Who is developing you?
Development cannot be left to osmosis. Somebody has to own it. That may be a manager, mentor, coach, advisor, partner, or team leader. The person has to know who is paying attention.
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Where can you go in this firm?
This requires honest contemplation. A firm should never promise what it can’t deliver. But you should be able to map out and articulate potential paths for client advice roles, planning, operations, leadership, business development, team management, partnership and enterprise roles. If a certain path is limited, say so. If a path is expanding, show how.
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How does your work matter?
Younger professionals want to connect their work to genuine, tangible meaning. In wealth management firms, this certainly shouldn’t be difficult. The work matters because families make financial decisions with real-world consequences. Business owners transition companies. Surviving spouses need confidence. Children inherit both assets and responsibility. Clients make choices about retirement, philanthropy, risk, legacy, and care. If individuals inside the firm can’t connect their daily work to that purpose, you as leaders simply haven’t framed the work well enough.
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How will AI change your role, and how will we help you grow with it?
Although new and evolving, this question is an important one that will be top-of-mind for many prospective and current team members. People hear about automation. They hear about AI meeting notes, planning tools, portfolio commentary, client segmentation, content creation, and workflow tools. And they can’t help but wonder if their role will become more valuable, less valuable, or obsolete.
As leaders, you need to step up and answer directly. AI may reduce routine work, but it can increase the importance of judgment, communication, empathy, quality control, client understanding, and planning insight. Show your employees how it can train them to move up the value chain.
Wondering, “how do we get started?” Ask every manager to schedule just one future-focused conversation with each of their direct reports over the next sixty days. Use a simple agenda: where are they now, what are they currently learning, where do they want to grow, what experiences will they need to achieve that, and how can the firm support them in the process.
Make sure they clearly document each of these next experiences. Remember, not the next title, but the next experience.
Maybe the person needs to lead part of a client meeting or run a planning case. Maybe they need to mentor someone newer or get involved in presenting at a team meeting. Perhaps they need to shadow a senior advisor or require applicable AI training. Or maybe they need to sit in on business development conversations.
Growth happens through hands-on experience, not from sitting on the sidelines watching. If your future goal is to win next generation talent, the only way to succeed is by by making growth visible, development intentional, and purpose real.
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Coaching Questions From This Article
- Can your next generation talent see a future in your firm that is clear enough to stay for?
- Where are you giving them work, but not development?
- What leadership opportunities can they experience before they receive a leadership title?
- How will AI make their future role more valuable, not less valuable?
- What would they say your firm is preparing them to become?
