“Do your friends know how much you make?”
“Is it ever OK to NOT tip a waiter or waitress?”
“What car do you drive and how much is your car payment?”
Those are some of the inquiries up for debate on the TikTok account for Frich, a financial app that helps young adults answer these questions and more. As of Sept. 15, more than 2,000 responded to the question about car payments. Some recommended saving: “I’m duct taping my 2009 scion bumper back on tomorrow. Team no payment.” Others shared a love of luxury: “BMW X3, Alpine White, Premium Package … $674 a month. Bought it, not lease[d]. Love it, don’t care”.
According to a May 2025 Gallup poll, 42% of young adults (18-29) turned to social media for financial advice and information; roughly a third relied on their bank or credit union. It’s a gap that traditional financial institutions have struggled to close: In Bank Director’s 2023 Technology Survey, just 18% of community bank senior executives and board members believed they had the tools needed to serve Gen Z, the oldest of whom are now 28 years old.
Spencer Feuer, managing principal of banking and payments at Capco, says financial institutions are attuned to a large wealth transfer that is currently underway, with trillions passing over the next two decades from baby boomers to younger generations. Around 45 million Americans are between the ages of 15 and 24, and 46 million between 25 and 34, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In total, that’s more than a quarter of the population. “This is a population that they realize they need to go after,” Feuer says. Some financial providers are leveraging financial education with generation-appropriate messaging to hit that target.
Frich — short for an expletive followed by the word rich — reaches more than 1.5 million Gen Z users, about 65% of whom are women, according to cofounder and CEO Katrin Kaurov. Some are graduating college and getting their first full-time jobs, and they need answers. “That’s when you set up your 401(k), your savings account, your investment account,” she says. “You’re making decisions that are going to define your entire financial future.” And they want to hear from their peers — 57% looked to friends and family for financial advice, according to Gallup.
Kaurov says Frich helps users understand the financial implications that underlie their goals or concerns — for example, whether to break up with a partner, when to freeze your eggs, whether you can afford to adopt a dog. “This is where banks and credit unions, they’re really missing out,” she says. “All their content is so intimidating. It’s written in such complicated vocabulary.” Financial institutions may tell prospective customers about their products, but they don’t explain why they’re needed.
Some of the questions in the Frich app are sponsored by advertisers; Frich also personalizes referrals to outside products and services based on the user’s needs.
Some of those referrals go to ZYNLO Bank, the digital division of $4.3 billion PeoplesBank, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The mutual bank subsidiary of PeoplesBancorp founded ZYNLO in May 2020 to attract deposits outside its core markets in western Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. Peoples also wanted to bring its average customer age down, from around 74 years old, says Aleda De Maria, chief banking officer at PeoplesBank. Today, it’s the “third largest branch in the network.”
Customers like the high interest rates they can earn on ZYNLO’s deposit accounts — currently 2% for checking and 4.35% for savings. The digital bank also offers customers insights into how they’re spending their money, combined with savings goals and a roundup feature that the bank matches during the first 100 days.
The product and the technology are as important as the messaging. ZYNLO doesn’t say “Gen Z” on its website, but it uses a casual tone that appeals to them. Education is emphasized. Brit Williams, senior vice president of digital growth and partnerships at PeoplesBank, points out that a lot of young customers don’t know that an APY refers to annual percentage yield, for instance. “I’ve worked in other areas of banking where it’s very legal language,” she says. “We lean more into common verbatim as opposed to formality.”
ZYNLO also works with other providers that can help young customers meet their goals, like the fintech Acrew, which connects first-time homebuyers to down payment assistance programs. “A lot of [people in their] twenties and thirties, they don’t think they’re ever going to own a home,” Williams says.
Some apps are trying to hook the next generation of customers even earlier. BusyKid offers kids a way to save and invest in stocks, give to charities and get paid by family members. The app includes up to five prepaid cards and a dashboard for parents; there’s even an automated allowance option. BuskyKid can be white labeled by the company’s bank or credit union partners; those institutions pay an implementation fee and annual subscription for the app’s use. A direct subscription is also available at $4 a month per family.
The typical financial institution usually offers kids a “watered-down version of an adult checking account,” says CEO and founder Gregg Murset. That doesn’t help them connect the dots on saving, investing and giving. “After you teach your kids not to steal and beat people up,” he says, “you’ve got to teach them how to deal with money, because that’s what’s going to give them the ability to succeed in life.”
Parents have long wanted these types of tools, says Feuer.
Murset admits young depositors don’t tend to have a high deposit balance or generate a lot of interchange income. Yet, financial institutions “need to keep those people engaged,” he says. Down the road, they could need an auto loan or a mortgage; they could open a business. Community banks and credit unions that don’t offer young customers a reason to stay risk losing them to a big bank or fintech.
And it’s not hard to crack the code, says Kaurov. Gen Z wants financial advice in simple terms, combined with the technology tools they expect. “That’s really it,” she says. “There’s a billion-dollar opportunity there.”
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