BY MOST ACCOUNTS Sabrina Lowell is just the kind of financial planner anyone would want. With the biggest client roster at one of the Bay Area's top boutique firms, she's handled just about everything boilerplate retirement planning, coordinating elder care, charitable giving. Nationally, she's recognized as a rising star: She helped organize the Financial Planning Association's annual conference and ran for the group's national board last fall.

But when she meets prospective clients, Lowell notices they don't always take her seriously. She thinks it's because she hasn't had many years in the field. Or maybe it's something else like her braces. She had them put on last year, and now, she laments, "I look like I'm 17." Then again, that wasn't so long ago. Look at her driver's license today (as bartenders often do) and you'll see that, for all her impressive credentials, she's only 28.

As it turns out, your children aren't the only twentysomethings with plans for your money. Traditionally a gray-templed group, financial planners are getting young like not-old-enough-to-rent-a-car young. Indeed, at a time when millions of baby boomers need retirement advice and when much of the current generation of financial planners is preparing for its own retirement the MTV generation is quietly taking over this field. Last year one in five aspiring certified financial planners were in their 20s, up 21% in four years. The brokerage Edward Jones, one of the biggest providers of financial advice, has seen its cadre of under-30 advisers grow 50% since 1999.

Demographics, of course, play a major role in this shift. Boomers are preparing to roll over $13 trillion in retirement assets, and according to some surveys, more than 90% of them will look for professional advice when they do. Already the job market for advisers is booming: The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects that job category to expand by about 40% by 2016. Yes, working in Silicon Valley may be a little hipper for college grads, but salaries for financial planners can approach six figures within a few years. And the path to that degree is straighter than ever: Almost 100 colleges and universities now offer undergraduate programs in financial planning.

There's just one problem. Not every baby boomer wants a baby-faced planner. For many people it's uncomfortable enough trying to trust a seasoned pro to make the right decisions about a nest egg. In volatile stock markets like this year's, advice seekers can put an even higher premium on experience. What's more, experts say that both emotionally and psychologically, it's hard for older people to concede authority or control to some young buck. Tom Potts, who runs the financial-planning program at Baylor University, says many of his students run smack into this generational wall after they graduate. "It's not that you're not smart enough," he says he tells them. "It's that you're not old enough, and that 50-year-old sitting across the table will not have any confidence in you."

But youth does have its advantages, even in the world of your grandfather's 401(k) plan. After all, younger planners note that they will still be working long after their elder colleagues have retired. Twentysomethings also point out that they're up-to-date and more comfortable with new planning software. At least some young advisers say they're hitting the age issue head-on, navigating new norms of dress (out with the open-toed shoes, in with the pumps) and communication (yes 2 fone, n 2 txt msg) to make older clients feel a little better. Some sport glasses or beards to look older; Lowell has been telling clients she is "almost 30" for years.

But will clients ever feel good about the youthquake? We visited some youthful advisers to see how this brave new world of financial planning is shaping up.

The Players

On a recent Wednesday in a Towson, Md., office park, the principals of Greenspring Wealth Management spent the afternoon dodging painters and moving office furniture. Even so, Pat Collins, 31, and Josh Itzoe, 33, weren't complaining. Three years after opening the financial-planning practice, the pair had enough business to add another planner. Luckily, an office was ready for him; Collins and Itzoe had spent a few weekend days building new walls and redoing the electric wiring when they first moved in.

Not a lot of financial planners go solo in their 20s. But just a few years after hanging out their shingle, Collins and Itzoe manage about $40 million for 80 clients. That takes chutzpah, says Karen Schaeffer, a planner and former chairperson of the CFP Board, the group that administers the Certified Financial Planner credential. "Someone going solo at 27 has a lot more explaining to do than someone in a firm with resources and a structured mentoring program and a robust compliance office," she says. "Who's there to say, 'I've seen this before?'"

Collins and Itzoe say they get that mentoring from their eight-member advisory board of local businessmen, including some clients, and from networking with other area planners. In fact, there's little about the business to suggest rookies at work. The offices are spare but serious. Photos of wives and kids dot their desks, and Collins, who is already going gray, is handier with his financial calculator than his iPod. A smattering of baseball paraphernalia pays homage to Itzoe's short stint in the minors.

Investing with Greenspring requires a pioneering spirit and a great deal of trust. By and large they keep it simple, building portfolios of bonds to generate income and favoring stock-index funds, which keep costs to a minimum. For wealthier clients they dabble in more exotic investments, using complicated real estate, energy and mortgage funds. And when it comes to the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, Collins acknowledges they're still learning. "The 'owning a business' part human resources, developing people and talent that comes with time," Collins says. For example, the firm has a defined career track, and goal No. 5 in the 10-year plan includes seeing five employees become "senior wealth managers"-lofty, considering that right now the firm is awaiting its first employee. The good news: The new hire is 28 years old. For the first time, Collins and Itzoe will be the veterans of the office.

The Heirs

After more than 30 years planning for his clients' golden years, Jim Mathias recently started thinking about his own retirement. Specifically, what would happen to Focus Financial, the financial-planning firm he'd founded nearly 20 years ago? The answer, he decided, lay with youth: Bring on a few twentysomethings, train them and get ready to step back. At 53, Mathias is typical of the first generation of financial planners. Like many, he started his career selling insurance, then established his financial-planning firm as an alternative to what he saw as the sales-driven culture of that industry. Now the business, headquartered on the second floor of an office park in the Bingham Farms suburb of Detroit, manages $65 million for 135 clients. And like his peers, Mathias is graying. While younger people are rapidly joining the financial-planning ranks, most advisers are still 50-plus and, like Mathias, many are considering their exit strategy.

Mathias started hiring planners half his age. Christine Denham, 27, worked at a few financial-planning firms, including Ameriprise Financial, before signing on with Mathias. Brian Miller, 28, went to school for mechanical engineering but after a few years found the work boring; he finished Eastern Michigan University's financial-planning courses last summer. Neither of the junior planners meets with clients one-on-one. Nor do they make any major decisions without Mathias's input. "You need a lot of experience to know what works and what doesn't," says Denham. "I'm qualified, but am I the best financial planner you've ever seen? Not today." So for now Mathias sits in at least part of every client meeting. While Mathias has promised his prot g s a five-year track to partnership, he's frank about their limitations: "If something happened to me on the way home, could they do it? They're two years away."

To read more about young advisers, turn to the May issue of SmartMoney Magazine. To watch video interviews with Maryland planners Collins and Itzoe, click here.