Millennials prefer life insurance to mutual funds: finds Bank Bazaar study

While 71% millennials have life insurance policies, 56% have invested in mutual funds.

A Bank Bazaar study titled ‘Aspiration Index 2018: Decoding Indian Millennials’ on millennials shows that millennials prefer having life insurance to investing in mutual funds.  The study further shows that while 72% of millennials have life insurance policies, 56% prefer investing in mutual funds.

The research report surveyed 1551 men and women with age group between 25 and 35 across 12 cities. These individuals were salaried professionals earning at least Rs. 30,000 in metros and Rs. 20,000 in non-metros. They had also done at least one online shopping transaction in the last month.

The study says that most millennials do not have high-risk appetite. The study says, “Only 56% opted for wealth building instruments like mutual funds. Millennials seem to be portrayed as ‘high on risk’ in general, but do not seem to exhibit that when it comes to financial planning. 72% of them revealed that they had some form of life insurance.”

The study has predicted that AMFI campaign will help millennials understand the benefits of mutual funds. “A fairly different picture could emerge in next year’s aspiration index results, with massive publicity campaigns around investing such as ‘mutual funds sahi hai’ encouraging more people to consider debt and equity investments when building their financial portfolios.”

Another key finding of the report is that many millennials do not prefer to go with financial advisors for investments. The report shows that 91% of millennials believe in making their financial decisions on their own, while only about 5% leave it to their financial advisor. Also, 4% millennials entrust it to someone else in my family.

Among top most aspirations of millennials is to own a house. However, skyrocketing real estate prices have made home ownership in most cities an elusive dream for most, finds the report. Hence, millennials find their aspiration in travelling as it has become more affordable over the years.