I recently met Laurin, 27 years old. He is a client of our financial advisory service and when we met he was enthusiastic about the fact that he can support sustainability with the help of his pension plan. Unfortunately, Laurin is an exception. Only rarely do we meet people in our practices who can imagine a connection between their financial investment and overall sustainability.
In general, finances are not a subject that inspires most people as much as Laurin does. But we left behind the potential. Because the better the financial knowledge, the greater the willingness to invest in sustainable financial products. So what do you do if you don’t have financial knowledge? It is important that politicians and the financial industry draw the right conclusions and act.
different ideas about sustainability
I randomly meet with our clients at regular intervals, and over the last five years I’ve had about 50 conversations. I often find faces of surprise when I talk about the issue of sustainability in relation to investments. As soon as I tell my interlocutors something and explain how investments can be made sustainably, then they are basically open and interested.
However, the conversations also show that consumers have a wide spectrum of what is meant by sustainable investments and what they should achieve.
Some examples of my conversations:
“In my life insurance, the return is the most important thing to me. If sustainable alternatives have the right potential for profitability, I would be interested, otherwise not. In private, I make sure to buy regional products. The theme is important to me.”
(Jan B., 25 years old)“Who can tell me how sustainable the financial product really is, even if it’s there? Sustainability in financial products only adds to the complexity. If they sell, that’s marketing.”
(Laura F., 34 years old)“Sustainability is increasingly important to me and my circle of friends. I own sustainable ETFs myself and would be willing to forego returns to a certain extent.”
(Carolina S., 26 years old)
Sure, we all have our own idea of sustainable living. However, when it comes to sustainable financial investments, consumers reach their limits very quickly.
Our regular, representative market research shows that only 5 percent of people spontaneously associate sustainability and retirement planning. And they only decide on sustainable solutions when they are informed about them.
Unfortunately, very few have real financial knowledge. It’s too bad, because the potential would be high: after all, 42 percent of people informed have a concrete willingness to make an ESG-compliant investment. Half of them would make a sustainable investment if they were actively asked about it, and therefore 65 percent would like advice on the subject. It is even more important that they also receive answers during the consultation.