FinTok is real; it’s influential — and studies show up to 70% of it is misleading2. Here’s what the algorithm won’t tell your family and how to start a conversation that actually helps.
Meet FinTok — financial TikTok’s rise
Picture this: A 22-year-old scrolls through a 60-second video of someone revealing their savings account balance, student loan total, and $0 retirement savings — and it gets four million views. Welcome to “FinTok,” the corner of TikTok devoted to personal finance and where tens of millions of Gen Z and younger millennials are forming their foundational financial beliefs.
The hashtags #FinTok, #StockTok, and #FinanceTok have accumulated billions of views. “Save with me” challenges, loud budgeting trends, and dramatic debt-payoff reveals have become the dominant financial media for an entire generation. That’s not fringe content — that’s the primary financial education many young adults are receiving.
As a parent or grandparent, you may have wondered whether what your children or grandchildren are learning on social media is helping them. The answer is nuanced and worth understanding before the costs of misinformation compound.
What FinTok gets right
Credit where it’s due: FinTok has done something the financial industry largely failed to do for decades — it made money conversations feel approachable. Behavioral finance research supports that social accountability improves savings habits, and the “save with me” trend capitalizes on exactly that dynamic.
The transparency trend — where creators share their debt balances, real savings numbers, and honest financial struggles — has meaningfully reduced the shame that used to keep young people from seeking help. A 2024 survey of 2,000 Americans found that 65% of FinTok users feel more financially confident since engaging with the platform.3 And a majority of Gen Z (76%) and millennials (65%) actively seek financial guidance through social media.4
FinTok also meets young people where they are, in a format they trust, with no minimum account balance required. The problem isn’t the format. It’s who’s filling it.
The 70% problem
Here’s the statistic that should stop a scroll: Studies analyzing viral finance TikToks have found that 70% of content is misleading.5 A separate analysis of more than 2,470 finance videos across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram concluded that 71% of the financial advice directed at Gen Z is inaccurate or incomplete, with TikTok emerging as the most problematic platform.6
What does misleading look like in practice? It shows up in four patterns worth recognizing:
- Omission: Technically true statements that leave out the part that matters. “Max your Roth IRA” is sound advice until it leaves out income eligibility limits, contribution rules, and what to hold inside the account after it’s open.
- Overgeneralization: Advice that works for one person’s situation, presented as universal truth. “Always pay off debt before investing” is sometimes right and often wrong, depending on interest rates, employer match availability, and individual tax position.
- Outdated information: Tax rules, contribution limits, and financial laws change. A video from 18 months ago may be factually incorrect today. The creators with the most followers are not necessarily the ones most current on the rules.
- Conflicts of interest: Many FinTok creators are paid to promote specific apps, brokerages, or financial products without adequate disclosure.7 Among Gen Z, only 32% call TikTok “trustworthy” for financial guidance, yet they continue using it.8
The deeper issue here is structural: The incentives driving a finfluencer’s content are fundamentally different from those of a licensed advisor. As the late investor Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” A creator’s livelihood depends on views, followers, and sponsorship revenue — not on whether your family member’s retirement account is on track. Unlike licensed advisors, who are subject to SEC and FINRA oversight and held to fiduciary or suitability standards, social media creators face no legal accountability for the financial outcomes of their advice. And while some creators do include disclaimers, research consistently shows that young audiences scroll past disclosures or don’t register them as meaningful. The lack of regulatory structure isn’t a technicality — it’s a meaningful gap in protection.
The advice that sounds right but isn’t
Some of the most widespread FinTok content is directionally reasonable but dangerously incomplete when applied without professional context. Here are a few examples your family members may have encountered:
- “Just put everything in index funds.” Broadly sound, but this advice ignores tax location strategy, specifically which assets belong in taxable accounts versus tax-advantaged accounts for optimal after-tax growth. It also sidesteps asset allocation by age and risk tolerance, and the meaningful difference between a Roth IRA and a taxable brokerage account.
- “You need $1 million to retire.” An arbitrary number that ignores spending habits, Social Security income, healthcare costs, state tax exposure, and sequence-of-returns risk. Real retirement planning requires a personalized projection, not a round number a creator picked for its visual appeal.
- “Pay yourself first — automate savings.” An excellent habit when automated into the right account type. Routing savings into the wrong vehicle, or before establishing an emergency fund, can leave young adults financially exposed when the unexpected arrives.
- Crypto as a retirement strategy. This is covered extensively on FinTok with almost no discussion of volatility risk, tax treatment of crypto gains, or appropriate position sizing within a broader portfolio.
The through line in each of these examples is the same: A 60-second video has no idea what your family member earns, owes, owns, or wants. A licensed advisor with a personalized financial plan does.
In addition, tax strategies within investing are one of the most consequential and consistently overlooked topics on social media. The reason is straightforward: Tax planning doesn’t make for engaging short-form content. It requires knowing someone’s income level, account types, investment time horizon, and expected future tax rates — none of which creators know about their audiences. A young adult who invests in the right funds but in the wrong accounts could end up paying significantly more in taxes over a lifetime than necessary. That’s a cost that never gets talked about on a 60-second video, but it compounds just as reliably as returns do.
What a licensed advisor offers that TikTok cannot
A personalized financial plan accounts for your family member’s tax bracket, employer benefits, family situation, timeline, and risk tolerance — simultaneously. But the value of working with a licensed advisor can begin even earlier than the plan itself. It starts with asking the right questions. Before building any strategy, a skilled advisor helps define what the client is trying to optimize for — not the metrics that happen to trend online, but the outcomes that matter to their specific life.
Social media is full of shiny objects: the hottest stocks, the most viral savings challenges, the latest investing strategy with a catchy acronym. A licensed advisor helps ensure that personal values, not social media noise, are what drive financial decisions. That alignment — between what someone genuinely wants from their life and the financial strategy designed to support it — is something no algorithm can replicate. Coordination is where wealth-building can happen. Three areas are particularly high-stakes for young adults:
- Tax planning from the start. The accounts your children and grandchildren choose in their 20s dramatically affect their tax situation decades later, and this framework is nearly impossible to course-correct after the fact. The Roth vs. traditional IRA decision, for example, depends entirely on current versus expected future tax rates. No viral video can answer that without knowing the individual’s full financial picture.
- Financial planning and employer benefits optimization. Most young employees leave significant money on the table in 401(k) employer matches, HSA eligibility, and equity compensation. A comprehensive financial plan maps these benefits into an integrated strategy rather than leaving each decision to a separate TikTok search.
- Estate planning and generational wealth coordination. The earlier a young person builds an advisor relationship, the more aligned your family’s wealth transfer planning can become. Estate planning, inheritance coordination, and family financial communication work more effectively when the next generation already has financial literacy and a trusted professional relationship in place. An estimated 70% of family wealth is lost by the second generation and 90% by the third — often not because of poor investments, but because of inadequate planning and coordination.6 This pattern is explored compellingly in the book “Missing Billionaires” by Victor Haghani and James White, which examines why so few high-net-worth families manage to preserve their wealth across generations. Their research points to a sobering reality: Humans are not naturally wired to maintain wealth over time. We are wired for the present, for visible threats, and for immediate rewards — not for the kind of multidecade, multigenerational planning that sustained wealth preservation requires. Behavioral tendencies like overconfidence, recency bias, and poor risk sizing are likely to erode family wealth far more reliably than bad luck does. That’s precisely why professional planning and coordination matters so much — not just for building wealth, but for ensuring it survives the transitions between generations.
A note on what “licensed” means: Licensed advisors carry fiduciary obligations, credentials, and regulatory oversight that social media creators are simply not required to meet.
The CFP® certification — the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® certification — for example, requires completing a comprehensive educational program, passing a rigorous national exam, accumulating thousands of hours of professional experience, and adhering to a strict code of ethics.
Most people who turn to social media for financial guidance have no visibility into these distinctions. They don’t know that the advisor on the other side of a client meeting has passed a licensing exam, carries professional liability, and can face regulatory consequences for bad advice — while the creator in their feed faces none of those accountability structures. That accountability matters, especially when the stakes involve decades of compounding.
Starting the conversation — for parents and grandparents
You don’t need to be a financial professional to open the door. You just need to ask the right questions — ones that feel collaborative rather than corrective. Try these conversation starters:
- “What are you doing with your 401(k) at work? Are you getting the full employer match?”
- “Have you looked into whether a Roth IRA makes sense for you right now?”
- “Where are you getting your financial information? Have you ever talked to anyone?”
These questions acknowledge your family member’s agency rather than dismissing the research they’ve already done. The goal isn’t to invalidate FinTok; it’s to add depth to it.
The earlier a young person begins working with a licensed advisor, the more compounding time their decisions can have. Not just their money, their decisions. The habits, account structures, and tax strategies established in someone’s 20s helps create the foundation on which everything else is built.
And the data supports exactly this. The Vanguard Advisor Alpha study — one of the most cited pieces of research on the value of professional financial guidance — found that working with a skilled advisor can add an average of approximately 3% in net annual returns compared to going it alone. Notably, the majority of that added value doesn’t come from picking better investments. It comes from behavioral coaching: helping clients avoid panic selling during market downturns, stay the course during volatility, and sidestep the costly financial mistakes that social media-fueled decision-making can invite. For a young adult with decades ahead of them, that kind of disciplined guidance — compounded over 30 or 40 years — can represent a significant difference in financial outcome potential.
What good financial content for young people looks like
If your children or grandchildren want to use FinTok as a starting point for financial curiosity, that’s reasonable — with one important filter. Look for creators who:
- Hold relevant credentials, such as CPA, CFA®, and the CFP® certification, and have applicable client experience.
- Disclose conflicts of interest and sponsorships openly.
- Regularly tell viewers to consult a licensed professional for their specific situation.
- Acknowledge that their advice may not apply to every person’s circumstances.
That posture — transparency about limitations — is the hallmark of trustworthy financial content at any length.
FinTok isn’t going away, and it shouldn’t. At the same time, a generation learning about money through social media deserves access to advice that’s built around their life. The opportunity for families is to ensure that the curiosity FinTok sparks leads somewhere meaningful — to a professional relationship that can translate financial interest into a real, personalized plan.
At Mercer Advisors, we welcome the chance to be part of that journey. Whether your children or grandchildren are just entering the workforce, navigating their first 401(k), or simply wondering whether the financial advice they’ve seen online applies to them, we’re here for that conversation.
The earlier a young person builds a relationship with a trusted advisor, the more confident and coordinated their financial decisions can become. We work with families across generations, and some of the most meaningful planning we do starts long before a young adult has significant wealth to manage.
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Not all of it — FinTok has genuinely improved financial awareness and normalized conversations about money for younger generations. The concern is accuracy and completeness. Studies show that a significant portion of viral finance content contains misleading information or omits critical context. The format rewards entertainment value and emotional resonance, not necessarily accuracy. Use it as a starting point for curiosity, not a substitute for personalized guidance.
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Look for demonstrated credentials — CPA, CFA®, or the CFP® certification — and consistent disclosures about sponsorships or conflicts of interest. Trustworthy creators acknowledge the limitations of their advice and regularly encourage viewers to consult a licensed professional for their specific situation. Be cautious of creators who present complex financial decisions as universally applicable or imply consistent, specific returns.
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One of the most frequent mistakes is treating broad financial advice as universally applicable. Young adults often follow advice that is directionally correct — max your retirement account, invest in index funds — but the content’s omission of the context that determines whether that advice applies to them can lead to mistakes. The Roth versus traditional IRA decision, for example, depends entirely on current and expected future tax rates. A licensed advisor can assess those variables; a 60-second video cannot.
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Ask questions rather than offering answers. “Are you getting the full employer match on your 401(k)?” or “Have you looked into a Roth IRA?” invites conversation rather than correction. Sharing that you work with a financial advisor and find it valuable — rather than telling them they should — tends to land better with younger adults and avoids them feeling like they are being talked down to about money.
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Yes — in many cases, the earlier the better. The tax decisions, account structures, and savings habits established in your 20s compound over decades. A licensed advisor can help a young adult map employer benefits, choose between account types, and build a tax-efficient foundation from the start. Mercer Advisors welcomes conversations with the next generation, even before they have significant wealth to manage.
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A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interests — not their own, not their firm’s. This is an enforceable standard, not a marketing claim. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professionals, for example, must complete a rigorous educational program, pass a comprehensive national exam, accumulate thousands of hours of professional experience, and adhere to a strict code of ethics. They are also subject to SEC and FINRA oversight, which means fiduciaries are subject to real regulatory consequences for advice that harms clients. Most people who turn to social media for financial guidance don’t know that this accountability structure exists — or that the creators in their feed operate entirely outside it. That gap matters, especially when the decisions being made affect someone’s financial life for decades.
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Because tax planning doesn’t translate well to short-form content — and because doing it properly requires information a creator doesn’t have. Answering whether someone should prioritize a Roth IRA over a traditional 401(k) or which investments belong in a taxable account versus a tax-advantaged one requires knowing that person’s current income, expected future tax rates, account types, time horizon, and overall financial picture. A 60-second video has none of that context. The result is that one of the most consequential and controllable variables in long-term wealth building — tax location strategy — is almost entirely absent from the financial content most young adults consume. It’s a costly gap, because the decisions made in someone’s 20s about account types and tax structure are extraordinarily difficult to undo later.
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The data says yes — and the source of that difference may surprise you. The Vanguard Advisor Alpha study, one of the most frequently cited pieces of research on this question, found that working with a skilled advisor can add an average of approximately 3% in net annual returns compared to managing finances independently. Importantly, most of that added value doesn’t come from choosing better investments. It comes from behavioral coaching — helping clients stay the course during market volatility, avoid panic selling, and sidestep the kinds of costly financial mistakes that emotionally-driven or social media-influenced decision-making tends to invite. For a young adult with 30 or 40 years ahead of them, that kind of disciplined guidance, compounded over time, can represent a significant difference in financial outcomes.
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Research — including the compelling analysis in “Missing Billionaires” by Victor Haghani and James White — points to a consistent pattern: Roughly 70% of family wealth is lost by the second generation and 90% by the third. The reasons are rarely bad investments.9 More often, the culprit is inadequate planning, poor risk sizing, and the behavioral tendencies that humans carry into financial decisions — overconfidence, recency bias, and an orientation toward the present rather than multidecade horizons. We simply aren’t naturally wired for generational wealth preservation. That’s not a character flaw; it’s a human one. A comprehensive financial plan — one that brings the next generation into the conversation early, coordinates estate planning across the family, and builds financial literacy alongside financial assets — is one of the most reliable ways to help counter it. That’s exactly the kind of planning Mercer Advisors is built to support.
1 “71% of Social Media Financial Advice Misleads Gen Z and Millennials.” Social Capital Markets, Nov. 2025.
2 “71% of Social Media Financial Advice Misleads Gen Z and Millennials.” Social Capital Markets, Nov. 2025.
3 “Survey Reveals How Americans Used FinTok in 2024.” Talker ResearchTalker Research, Dec. 11, 2024.
4 “How Americans Use Social Media for Financial Advice.” Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. 2025.
5 “Finance TikTok Report Card: 75% of Viral Investing Videos Misleading Across 2025-2026.” Daytrading.com, June 9, 2026.
6 “Gen Z Swaps Wall Street for FinTok — 70% Now Take Money Advice From Social Media, Surveys Show.” Benzinga, May 21, 2025.
7 “71% of Social Media Financial Advice Misleads Gen Z and Millennials.” Social Capital Markets, Nov. 2025.
8 “Securing the Family Tree: How To Preserve Generational Wealth.” AdvisorHub, May 15, 2023.
9 “71% of Social Media Financial Advice Misleads Gen Z and Millennials.” Social Capital Markets, Nov. 2025.
All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change. Some of the research and ratings shown in this presentation come from third parties that are not affiliated with Mercer Advisors. The information is believed to be accurate but is not guaranteed or warranted by Mercer Advisors. Content, research, tools and stock or option symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or to engage in any particular investment strategy. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment will either be suitable or profitable for a client’s investment portfolio.
