Gen Z and the Future of Wealth

Book excerpt: The world has never been 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 short-sighted choices of the past, which focused only 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 time bomb of climate change. If this is the legacy of our “intergenerational arbitrage,” what is the future for the Gen Z and for the Gen Alpha 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 – as in the future of wealth, and of its industry, could lie the future of humanity as well.