Picture a happy, successful-looking person sitting at a nice desk, surrounded by thriving houseplants (for whatever reason, so many seem to have houseplants), telling you exactly how to invest your retirement account. They seem to have it all figured out, plus they can even keep all those plants alive at the same time. After a few videos, it becomes easier and easier to trust this person. They aren’t even getting paid by you for this advice. They’re just giving it away, altruistically. Right?
This is where a lot of people now start their financial education. The world of finance is overwhelmingly difficult to navigate. Deciding what investment allocation makes sense for you, or whether you should be funding a traditional or Roth retirement account, used to mean paying an advisor to help you get it right. Often, the advisor has spent hundreds of hours studying for various exams to prepare them for some of the potential questions that come up in the day to day of a financial advisor. That relationship was an effective way of navigating the pitfalls that await people who have neither the time nor the desire to figure it out themselves.
Then came social media. Now it isn’t just possible to give financial advice to as many people as will listen, it’s profitable. And the appeal is easy to understand. You want to learn about something, so you type it into Google and watch whatever video comes up first. Who wants to read some dry post about the merits of Roth versus traditional IRAs when a friendly stranger will just tell you what to do?
In fairness, these stock photos were cherry picked but they really do all have plants.
What Is a Finfluencer
Finfluencers, short for financial influencers, share generalized investing wisdom via social media, typically in short form videos. By sharing “tips” in upbeat, nonchalant ways, they attempt to demystify complex topics and spread awareness in a space that’s heavily coded by jargon. Despite having virtually no regulatory oversight and being free to post any level of advice with little legal recourse, the finfluencer trend isn’t just surging, it’s solidifying as a mainstay resource. This resource is especially pronounced for younger generations. A UK survey published in 2025¹ found that 62% of 18-29 year olds follow finfluencers, and 74% of them trust the advice they receive. Even more notable: 9 out of 10 of these followers said they’ve changed their own financial behavior as a direct result of finfluencer content. Similarly, a US based study² found that nearly 40% of respondents aged between 18 and 35 use social media for financial advice. Additionally, nearly half of all the survey respondents indicated that if a finfluencer is financially successful themselves, that they are more credible.
“Finfluencers often lack professional qualifications and may be motivated by marketing compensation rather than a desire to provide sound financial guidance.”
— How Americans Use Social Media for Financial Advice
The Appeal Is Understandable
Accessibility is the top reason most people give for following finfluencers, and it’s a fair one. Deciding how and when to tap a Roth IRA for emergency funds or choosing between three months of cash savings versus investing that buffer can be daunting. Finfluencers make people feel less alone in confronting decisions that are genuinely intimidating.
The problem is that there’s no two-way relationship, and no accountability. Advisors have heavily vested relationships with their clients, and our success is directly tied to theirs. We analyze a client’s goals thoroughly, understand where they stand today, and build toward where they want to be in 1, 5, and 10 years. Finfluencers don’t share that same symbiotic relationship. For a finfluencer to succeed, they need to appeal to the masses. That’s the monetization model of social media, and it has nothing to do with accuracy or integrity. Clickbait titles, cherry-picked returns, and oversimplified explanations of complex strategies mask real risks and set investors up to fail. These issues are all handled and covered by strict regulatory requirements for registered financial advisors, and yet finfluencers and internet personalities are held to almost none of them.
This Isn’t Actually About Financial Literacy
Here’s the thing worth sitting with: most people following finfluencers aren’t naive. On some level, they know a stranger on TikTok, Instagram or Youtube has no idea who they are, what they earn, or what they’re actually trying to build. They follow anyway.
This is a trust gap, not a knowledge gap. For a lot of people, especially younger investors, the traditional financial system already feels like it let them down once and in a substantial way. Through 2008 and the global financial crisis, through inflation that outpaced wages, through a housing market that moved the goalposts on what “doing everything right” was supposed to buy you. Against that backdrop, a relatable stranger who openly admits their own mistakes can feel more honest than an institution that never has to. It’s not that misinformation is winning on merit. It’s that institutional trust is losing on record for understandable reasons.
That distrust is fair to have. It’s also exactly what leaves people exposed to advice with no accountability behind it.
To Be Clear: This Isn’t All Bad
This isn’t a case for writing off finfluencers as bad simply because they exist on social media. There are podcasts and channels worth listening to and engaging with. The difference is between taking direction from someone who has no idea what your goals are, and simply consuming something for entertainment value.
The finfluencers pushing passive income, “set it and forget it” investing, “risk-free” options strategies, or mega backdoor Roths are appealing because they carry just enough credibility to sound worthwhile despite the fact that the person behind the screen has no idea what your individual needs are. Their recommendations don’t come close to a fiduciary standard, and often wouldn’t even meet a suitability standard. Personalized investment advice must be personalized. Few rules apply equally to everyone, because no two people have the same goals. That’s one of the clearest signs of finfluencer inauthenticity and one of the most reliable thumbnail formulas. “You only need these four ETFs.” “Retire early with this one options strategy.” “Easy ways to grow your net worth fast.” These titles are enticing and that is precisely why they are so successful for drawing clicks and appealing to search algorithms. However, they lack substance and largely exist only to sell dreams with none of the accountability that matters and is vital for keeping advisors honest and properly aligning incentives.
Passive income is the second most popular money topic searched for by Gen Z, and yet it remains largely a pipedream sold by finfluencers to boost engagement. Unless you are starting with high demand rental property or tremendous sums of money, it is almost impossible to truly create risk free sources of passive income, let alone to the degree that is often promised in these videos.
None of this is to say finfluencers all have malicious intent. In fairness, some genuinely help make finance more approachable. Personal finance isn’t taught effectively in school. It’s one of the most important literacies for a functional adult life, and yet, pre-social-media, it was almost entirely ignored unless you pursued a finance or business degree. A lot of people got left behind by that gap. In that sense, finfluencers have done a real service to the average retail investor. They have helped to bring awareness to topics like not carrying credit card debt or understanding what drives a credit score, in ways that are approachable instead of intimidating. The problem isn’t the education. It’s when they start proclaiming themselves experts.
Regulators Are Starting to Pay Closer Attention
Finfluencers keep amassing huge followings despite multiple regulatory bodies flagging the risk. The International Organization of Securities Commissions has identified real gaps in regulatory coverage³ that leave retail investors exposed: “Although finfluencers can make financial advice more accessible, the fact that finfluencers are largely unregulated and need not have any qualifications means that following their advice may endanger retail investors.”⁴
This isn’t hypothetical. Between 2019 and 2023, Robinhood paid roughly 75 finfluencers a combined $2.7 million to promote its products⁵. FINRA later found that the resulting posts were misleading, exaggerated, and not fair or balanced — and fined Robinhood for failing to supervise the content. The finfluencers themselves largely operate outside FINRA’s direct reach entirely, which is exactly the accountability gap this article is about.
None of this is to paint finfluencers as malicious dealers selling out their audience. The goal here is simpler: don’t follow financial advice as gospel just because it’s confident and well-produced. It’s often either too generalized to be useful, or so niche it’s actively harmful. Options strategies do have a place in trimming an outsized position to reduce concentration risk, for example. Backdoor Roth strategies genuinely help people who earn too much to contribute directly. But the passive-income dream sold in most of these videos is largely a myth, because building wealth and managing it well are both, simply, hard.
What Real Accountability Entails
Gatewood advisors are held to a fiduciary standard. Our recommendations are specific to each client and built around where someone is in their financial journey and where they want to end up. We don’t publish content to farm engagement; we highlight real situations our clients have actually faced. And we’re transparent at every step:
- Performance is reported net of fees, benchmarked directly against relevant indices.
- Our compensation is disclosed in client meetings and published on our website.
- We’re upfront that, like everyone else, we can’t predict where markets go next — what we can promise is a plan built around you, not a subscriber count.
Things to Remember Before Taking Financial Advice From Anyone, Including Us
Before you watch the next finfluencer reel or short, run it through three questions:
- Does this person have a real credential and accountability behind their advice?
- Do they have a financial incentive to tell you this, and is it disclosed?
- And most critically, do they know anything about your actual situation, or are they talking to an audience of millions who all have different goals, timelines, and risk tolerances than you do?
If the answer to that last one is no, it isn’t advice. It’s content.
Sources & References
- RSM UK. “Finfluencers and Financial Uncertainty: Online Financial Advice Consequences.” RSM UK Insights. https://www.rsmuk.com/insights/advisory/finfluencers-and-financial-uncertainty-online-financial-advice-consequences
- Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “How Americans Use Social Media for Financial Advice.” Consumer Finance Report. https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/FRBP/Assets/Consumer-Finance/Reports/how-americans-use-social-media-for-financial-advice.pdf
- International Organization of Securities Commissions. “Finfluencers.” IOSCO Public Document. https://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD795.pdf
- Better Markets. “The SEC Must Regulate Finfluencers.” Better Markets Substack. https://bettermarkets.substack.com/p/the-sec-must-regulate-finfluencers
- Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. “Robinhood Financial LLC — Acceptance, Waiver and Consent.” FINRA Disciplinary Action, March 2025. https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/robinhood-AWC-030725.pdf
Important Disclosures:
Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Gatewood Wealth Solutions and LPL Financial do not provide legal or tax advice or services.
All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss
