A study from a European banking group and the world's largest asset manager delves into what HNW individuals in Europe think about investment, financial planning, and other topics.

European high net worth individuals are broadly confident about the future, but many have not yet started planning for it, according to a survey of people in Germany, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The study of 595 adults was carried out by Quintet Private Bank and BlackRock. (In the UK, Brown Shipley is part of the Quintet group of private banks.) The report is called Generational Wealth: 2024 Quintet/BlackRock European Wealth Insights. Research was conducted online between 19 August and 27 September 2024 by Ipsos UK.

The survey found that 78 per cent of European high net worth individuals expect their personal wealth to increase in the next five years. Multigenerational HNW individuals are markedly more likely to expect their personal wealth to increase in the next five years than are their first-generation peers. Notably, female survey respondents are almost twice as likely as male respondents to believe that their wealth will decrease over the next five years. 

Among survey respondents who have not yet retired, one-third have not begun to make a financial plan for their golden years. Further, half of those who have at least started making a retirement plan say they don’t have a full plan in place. Among such respondents, multigenerational HNW individuals – meaning those with significant inherited wealth – are notably more likely to have at least started making a retirement plan than their first-generation counterparts.

Similarly, while 80 per cent of European respondents said they intend to pass their wealth on to their children, just 34 per cent of these individuals have a full plan in place to do so. That includes 39 per cent of respondents in Germany, 35 per cent in the UK, 33 per cent in Belgium and 29 per cent in the Netherlands. 

(Editor’s note: As fieldwork for the report was conducted prior to the new UK government’s Autumn Budget, which unveiled a squeeze on inheritance tax and pension savings for affluent citizens, it may be interesting to know whether cynicism about the benefits of long-term saving might grow in the UK, and possibly in other countries, if their savings are taxed more heavily.)

Survey respondents were also asked what the appropriate age was to start talking to children/heirs about their wealth. On average, respondents said that 24 years' old is the right age to start that conversation. Among UK respondents, by comparison, the average ideal age is 22.  

Among all survey respondents with children/heirs, such conversations took place on average when their children/heirs were 21 years' old.

Where to invest
Turning to investment strategies, more than half of European HNWIs focused on growing their wealth over the next five years are currently invested in equities and/or real estate to support their financial goals. By comparison, survey respondents seeking to preserve their wealth are notably less likely to hold such investments in their portfolios. 

Some 43 per cent of those focused on growing their wealth invest in businesses. By comparison, 17 per cent of those focused on wealth preservation invest in businesses to protect their wealth. 

The survey follows a 2023 partnership between Quintet and BlackRock and the launch earlier this year of the first in a series of Quintet multi-manager investment funds designed with BlackRock and available exclusively to Quintet clients.