Are millennials truly insured?
Based on a report by Nielson, millennials are the most underinsured generation. Surprise, surprise!
We’re bombarded by study loans, car loans, rent, groceries, entertainment expenses etc. The list goes on and on! That’s why this revelation may not seem like a complete shock.
“These delays have kept Millennials from focusing on their insurance needs,” the article adds. Although the report proceeds by showing that not all of them have the same mindset, there’s still a handful of millennials out there without insurance.
This might be on a global scale, but let’s zoom in our fellow Malaysians. Are they falling into the same category?
Asian Institute of Finance conducted a study in 2015 and interviewed 1,000 young Malaysian professionals aged between 20 and 33 years old.
The report says that Gen Ys seem to tick the right boxes – pragmatic, highly optimistic, well educated, digital savvy. However, we’re also ticking the wrong boxes – overconfident of financial knowledge, impulse buying behavior, brand conscious, not as financially savvy.
Looking at the bigger picture, millennials are “on the road to financial stress, many living beyond their means”.
Out of all those interviewed, sadly only half of them said they owned unit trusts (52%) and insurance/takaful products (51%). Why?
Living in this digital era, are millennials bombarded with too much information? Do they lack financial knowledge? How about when it comes to insurance? Do they know where to find the right source?
According to the same report by AIF, majority of them get financial information from family and friends, and the internet. Now, we all know that everything on the internet isn’t true yet somehow it’s easy to fall into that trap. We all know that friend who believes in the memes 9gag way too much.
However, another downside to this is that our family and friends, and of course the internet, aren’t qualified sources. Essentially, it might cause more harm in the long run.
Furthermore, 62% of millennials surveyed by AIF find that engaging a financial advisor may be an expensive affair. That’s right, anything that seem expensive may cause to back further and further away. Or perhaps one bad apple pushed them to believe this.
Well, thankfully there’s a way to shatter these misconceptions and help millennials understand what they truly need at this age.
You’re in luck!
Malaysian millennials now have PolicyStreet, a platform to compare insurance and find the best one that suits your needs. Through this website, millennials can also speak to financial advisors. Thus, breaking the misconception that engaging one is expensive.
