How to Use Life Events to Build Long-term Banking Relationships
By Corey Wrinn, Rivel Banking Research
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Executive Summary
- Major life events, such as parenthood, are key inflection points in consumers’ financial needs that allow banks to expand and deepen customer relationships.
- Life events are not just an opportunity to provide targeted additional products and services; they also can change the nature of the customer relationship from short-term and transactional to long-term and loyal.
- Using parenthood as an example, it’s clear that monitoring and analyzing customer behavior in real-time is critical to anticipating customers’ upcoming life events, rather than playing catch-up after the fact.
In my last piece for The Financial Brand — Generational Differences Reshaping Consumer Finances — I explored how life events serve as powerful inflection points in a consumer’s financial journey. These moments, whether joyful, stressful, or transformative, create rare windows of opportunity for banks and credit unions to engage with relevance at the right time. Among the most profound of these events is becoming a parent.
New research conducted by Rivel in April reveals that financial institutions have a crucial opportunity when consumers become new parents — a time when they’re most likely to need additional financial services. Using this life event as a template, financial institutions can build a strategic roadmap for targeting the right customers at the right time, enabling them to drive growth by addressing real customer needs, not only broad-based marketing.
Parenthood as a Financial Turning Point
Becoming a parent is more than a personal milestone; it’s a financial awakening. From budgeting for diapers to planning for college, new parents are thrust into a world of long-term financial planning, often for the first time. According to Rivel’s national study, this moment is also one of the most likely to trigger a change in banking behavior.
Among Gen Z and Millennials who added a child to their home in the past few years, there was significant movement in their finances:
- 33% added a new account to their primary bank or credit union
- 26% switched their primary bank or credit union altogether
- 21% added a new account at their non-primary bank or credit union
- 18% transferred significant funds between institutions
These are not statistics, they’re signals. The results show that younger consumers are not only open to change during this life stage but actively seeking better alignment between their evolving needs and their bank’s offerings. Are you marketing the right products to these key demographics?
The New Parent Product Portfolio
When new parents walk into a bank, they’re reshaping their entire financial relationship across multiple product categories. Nearly two-thirds (64%) open savings accounts as their foundation for family financial security, while 49% establish education savings plans despite their newborn’s immediate needs. Financial planning services attract 41% of new parents seeking professional guidance to balance childcare costs with long-term goals, and 30% invest in insurance products for enhanced family protection. Additionally, 25% open youth accounts, establishing their child’s first banking relationship from birth.
This product mix shows new parents to be multi-product customers who value both immediate financial tools and long-term planning resources. Financial institutions that can seamlessly offer this complete suite — from basic savings to comprehensive financial planning — position themselves to capture not just individual transactions, but entire family financial relationships that can span decades.
Marketing That Matters for Parents
It’s not just about having the right products, it’s about showing up at the right time, in the right way.
New Gen Z and Millennial parents shared that 51% started researching new products for their child in the six months before their arrival to shortly after birth, up to a further six months. This is a crucial point: Even without typical signals like daycare transactions, or adding a youth account to their share of wallet, new or expecting parents may be already silently shopping. Adapt an “always-on attitude” about marketing the key products they may need.
The good news? Rivel’s research shows that 59% of consumers said that bank marketing played an important role in their decision-making during a major life event. That number climbs even higher among younger generations. Actively reaching out on certain products, services or features can only help stay in front of new parents.
For family savings accounts, the top product choice among new parents, Gen Z and Millennials drew from various sources when selecting their financial institution:
- 49% – Family/friend recommendations
- 46% – Used their current primary
- 36% – Relied on their own (web) research
- 23% – A key product or institutional promotion
- 21% – Digital marketing drove them
- 18% – Physical marketing drove them
- 5% – Relied on their partner’s decision
From Transactional to Transformational
For banks, life events like parenthood are not just marketing opportunities — they are trust-building moments. Institutions that recognize the emotional and logistical weight of becoming a parent can position themselves as true partners, not just service providers.
This is where life event marketing becomes more than a tactic, and it becomes a strategy for long-term growth with new customers and members. By aligning outreach with real-world transitions, banks can deepen relationships, increase their share of wallet, and build brand equity that lasts well beyond the baby years.
Banks can proactively identify new parents by analyzing customer behavior, leveraging internal and external data, and encouraging conversations. Key strategies can include:
- Transaction pattern analysis: Monitoring for baby-related purchases, daycare payments, pediatric healthcare expenses or changes in salary due to parental leave can signal new parenthood
- Customer self-reporting: Surveys, application forms that ask about dependents and life event updates via the website can help identify parents who choose to share this information
- Account activity: Opening multiple accounts at once (e.g., savings, education funds, youth accounts) or requesting financial planning services may indicate a shift to parenthood
- Digital engagement: Analyze in-app searches for parenting, budgeting, or family planning topics; encourage use of financial planning tools that reveal goals like saving for a child
- Partnerships: Support local parenting meetups or story time events with branded materials; collaborate with local baby stores to offer discounts tied to opening a new account; sponsor childbirth or parenting classes and offer free financial planning sessions
- Third-party data: Where legally permissible, banks can use data from brokers that track household changes, birth records, or demographic shifts — ensuring strict compliance with privacy regulations
Ensure Strong Brand, Along with Strategy
As Rivel continues to track consumer sentiment and behavior across the country, one truth remains constant: Customers remember who showed up when it mattered. For financial institutions, becoming part of that memory, especially during life-defining moments like parenthood, can be the difference between being a bank and being their bank.
Monitoring your institution’s brand and reputation is crucial for staying visible to potential customers, even with focused messaging around life events. Partnering with a trusted firm to measure and interpret brand perception can complement your growth strategies, ensuring a balanced approach to both brand management and tailored approaches like this.
Brand awareness against your competition is essential, even when doing everything else well. Consumers only bank with those that they know and trust.
