Gen Z and the Future of Wealth: Sustainable Investing and Wellbeing for Our Next Generations

The world has never be so rich—at least financially. And so unsustainable—economically, socially, and environmentally. In fact, we are all living a “nemesis of wealth” (nealth), caused by our shortsighted choices of the past, just focused on ROE, NPV, and shareholders’ value. This “nealth” is now paying us back not only with loads of public debt, inflationary money, and debased cryptocurrencies; but also with unbearable social discrimination, geopolitical tensions and wars and de-globalization; and—last but not least—with the ticking bomb of the climate change to come. If this is the legacy of our “intergenerational arbitrage” (theft?), what is the future for the Gen Z and of the many a to come? How can they manage and overcome all these unbearable burdens to regain the lost sustainability?

A new definition of wealth, based on a more holistic “total sustainability,” is then required; and, correspondingly, new models to design, manage, and value a targeted wealth creation that is relevant to many stakeholders. Never has been the challenge of change for the wealth management industry so critical, urgent, and of the utmost importance.