Millennial and Generation Z investors are more focused on doing good with their money, said Ida Liu, global head of Citigroup Inc.’s private bank.
“I believe in the future that we’re not going to be talking about ESG or impact investing as a separate class,” Liu said at the Bloomberg Invest conference on Thursday, referring to environmental, social and governance investing.
“It’s not going to be a separate product — it’s just going to be part of the core portfolio,” he said.
Citigroup’s younger clients are investing in green and housing bonds, for example, she said. “We had a client that said that they thought plastics were the nuclear waste of the century — we built a portfolio around that.”
Wealth-management firms are working to cater to the younger generation and keep them as clients. Wealth transfers to heirs will total almost $73 trillion in the US through 2045, according to estimates from research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.
Saira Malik, chief investment officer at TIAA’s Nuveen LLC investment-management firm, said at the conference that the industry should improve diversity among its employees. Less than a third of Latinos, for example, use a financial product or account, she said.
By Amanda Albright / Bloomberg
