Читать книгу ESG Investing For Dummies - Brendan Bradley - Страница 44

Millennials, those youngsters born between 1981 and 1996, are part of the generation entering their prime earning years. Numerous surveys have indicated that the vast majority of high net worth (HNW) millennials consider a company’s ESG track record before investing, or alternatively they want to tailor their investments to their personal values. This reflects a need for their money to not just earn a decent return but to contribute to the social good and how it impacts society and the planet at large.

Why is that important? Millennials are a large demographic, representing about 25 percent of the world’s population and a greater percentage of the workforce now and into the future. Moreover, this group is due to inherit a large amount of wealth as their parents, the baby boomers, pass on their considerable nest eggs. Furthermore, surveys have suggested that wealth management firms typically lose more than 70 percent of assets when they are transferred from one generation to the next. Subsequently, asset managers that offer millennials ESG investment options will be well positioned to attract new assets as well as retain beneficiary millennial clients.

So, millennials will require more active involvement in their investments, as they need to feel they are controlling their own destiny, and consequently they will have more activist tendencies. They are interested in ensuring that their financial return is linked to positive, or at least not unduly negative, environmental and social impact. In summary, while ESG investing will be used to create a competitive advantage, asset managers have to adopt socially responsible practices to continue gaining business in the investment industry.