Neil Buesnel, Senior Client Advisor at UBS Wealth Management in Jersey, discusses how lifestyle changes across education, healthcare and consumer preferences can result in investment opportunities
Humanity is facing a demographic expansion alongside large structural shifts, including the Fourth Industrial Revolution and rising environmental pressures. These interconnected trends are creating a range of opportunities for investors.
Over the next 30 years, the size of the global population will grow and our average age will increase. These demographic trends are taking place alongside major structural shifts.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, powered by automation, connectivity and the ‘environmental credit crunch’ will alter the way the global economy works.
All these issues are entwined, and we concentrate in this article on three key areas where we expect changes to be largest: education, health technology and consumer preferences.
Education
In a digitalised era where humans work and compete with machines, learning will increasingly have to focus on flexibility, creativity, innovation, interpersonal skills and mastering technology.
As knowledge becomes outdated sooner and working lives grow longer, the need to learn will stretch into retirement.
While we expect the overall education market to grow at a high single-digit rate over the next decade, private education will expand even more rapidly as the public sector lags behind the rise in demand.
The market for e-learning, language learning and test preparation should experience a growth rate in the high teens.
In education, we see investment opportunities in public and private markets in education technology, ancillary services and companies that have a superior record in training and developing their employees.
Related opportunities include businesses that provide education content and technology services, providers of education finance and companies that own, develop and manage learning infrastructure such as student housing.
Healthcare
Patients will take more financial responsibility for their health in the future. As ‘health consumers’, they will prioritise staying healthier for longer, transforming healthcare from an episodic service to a lifelong process of managing and maintaining health.
A more technology-driven healthcare ecosystem will enable this shift, opening up new ways to manage health.
Digital disease management offers a glimpse of tomorrow’s personalised approach to chronic disease.
The telemedicine boom points to a shift in the location of care as remote technology facilitates more efficient treatment paths and fewer hospital visits.
In healthcare, we consider investment opportunities in public and private markets through companies developing technologies or services that enable change (enablers), those that can use it to enhance their market positions (beneficiaries) and transformational technologies (moonshots).
Consumer preferences
Millennials and Generation Z will move into their peak earning years and they are likely to benefit from wealth transfer.
These cohorts are broadly more conscious of their social and environmental impact. They often value experiences more than material ownership.
Companies that produce goods and services that cater to the social and environmental values of these generations are likely to benefit.
Furthermore, companies that provide new consumer experiences through technologies like augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) can offer attractive investment opportunities.
In consumer preferences, we focus on the opportunities resulting from more socially conscious and digitally savvy consumers – sustainable brands and digital entertainment like AR, VR and esports.
Humanity is facing huge demographic and structural changes as the global population is growing and ageing. Economies are also being transformed by connectivity, automation and concern for the environment.
However, we believe that these pressures will create a range of opportunities for investors and we will be monitoring them with great interest.
Find out more
If you would like more information on how UBS Jersey can support your future investments, please contact:
Neil Buesnel, Senior Client Advisor UBS AG, Jersey Branch
1, IFC
St Helier, Jersey JE2 3BX
01534 701173
neil.buesnel@ubs.com
UBS AG, Jersey Branch is authorised and regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission for the conduct of banking, funds and investment business. © UBS 2020. All rights reserved.
• This advertising feature was first published in the Digital Edition of Businesslife in December 2020