While so much attention across the financial services industry these days is focused on baby boomers, we discovered one site gearing up to cater to the “next generation” – Gen X. With its new Schwab Money and More site, Charles Schwab is expanding its efforts to market to a younger audience.  The new site is certainly visually appealing, with plenty of large, easy-to-read text, images and Flash-based content. Videos of Schwab client interviews are even embedded within the site. Users will find a variety of tools and planning calculators. From the moment we visited the homepage, it was clear who the target audience is. The homepage highlights issues that many investors in their 20s and 30s, in particular, face – such as how to get out of debt, how marriage will affect money and how to start investing without a lot of money.

One of the most noteworthy features of the site is the firm’s Peer Comparison Tool, which allows users to compare their financial situation with those of other investors in a 25-40 age range, based on Schwab studies. This unique tool allows users to see how they match up in comparison to their peers according to Schwab’s research. Results are provided following each question, and users can also print a convenient results sheet as a PDF with their answers and explanations. This is certainly a valuable feature that can really get people thinking – and possibly even help prepare them for a conversation with a rep.

Schwab is doing something here that we have not seen very much. Catering to the needs of baby boomers is understandably the “flavor of the month” (or year or decade) across brokerage firms. This makes sense – after all, these millions of individuals have spent their lives amassing wealth and are now transitioning to retirement. They need help and this is a golden opportunity for brokerages and financial advisors - but what about everyone else? Generation X is chock-full of entrepreneurs, upwardly mobile professionals and those with varying levels of wealth. Most important – many GenXers are still young, so they can be seen as future wealth.  At some point, brokerage firms (if they are smart) will turn some of their attention from baby boomers to GenXers. Schwab is doing a good job by starting to tap that resource now.

Along with the new site geared toward GenXers, Schwab also introduced the Money and More Community – its active trader online forum. While bulletin boards are nothing new and we have seen online finance communities before, but it is a first from a large brokerage firm covered by e-Monitor. This is certainly a big step forward for Schwab, and we are happy to see some of the more established, larger firms starting to embrace sites and features like this as a medium for investors to become educated and exchange ideas.