Young adults take few risks when managing money and almost half of them (47 per cent) describe their financial personality as “cautious”, according to a bank survey.

Young adults take few risks when managing money and almost half of them (47 per cent) describe their financial personality as “cautious”, according to a survey by TD Bank, a subsidiary of Canada’s Toronto Dominion Bank.

According to results taken from a poll of over 2,000 millennials (those aged between 18 and 34), it appears that this segment of the population rely mostly on financial institutions and their families for advice about money. The survey forms part of the TD Bank Financial Education Survey.

The survey will add fuel to concerns that young people entering – or trying – to enter the workforce, sometimes already burdened with college debt, are not fully equipped to deal with financial challenges. The caution shown among survey respondents might concern those who argue that young people can afford to take higher risks with a portfolio when they have decades of working life ahead, as opposed to older people nearing retirement and hence requiring lower-risk assets. Although the survey's authors don't explicitly say so, the caution of young people may be a result of negative news headlines on business and markets since the 2008 financial crisis.

"The results of our study prove that financial education is not only a key component of financial success, but also that millennials want more support with their personal finances," Nandita Bakhshi, executive vice president, retail distribution and product, TD Bank, said in a statement accompanying the report. "Millennials need to feel empowered to reach out to their bank and have their questions answered so they become more confident about their financial futures,” Bakhshi said.

Some 49 per cent of respondents see their parents as primary influencers in shaping their banking and financial views; some 40 per cent still say they turn to parents and family as a source of information and 54 per cent said they go to their bank branch for information; however, 62 per cent go online.

While 59 per cent of millennials reported that they are "extremely" or "very" knowledgeable about their day-to-day banking products like checking accounts, they still want advice on personal finance topics, including: savings (32 per cent); creating a budget (30 per cent), and credit cards (26 per cent).

Very few of the respondents report to having had formal financial education training, such as a class at school, a seminar at a local bank or online courses, while 69 per cent of respondents had received no financial education lessons at all.

Millennials are banking online and on their mobile devices more frequently than in a branch. In fact, 90 per cent of respondents said they use online or mobile tools for their everyday banking activities, such as checking balances or paying bills, and 57 per cent said they are using mobile banking more frequently than they were last year.

The study was conducted among a nationally representative group of consumers from January 28 through February 10. The total sample size is 2,031 millennials (ages 18-34) and the national sample size of 1,530 has a margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent. The survey was hosted by global research company Angus Reid Public Opinion.