Today is the 2nd January 2026, yes, 2026, it’s amazing how time flies. On my way to the office I look at my diary for the week and instinctively look back. I have a habit of writing every start of the year. Reading what I wrote at the beginning of 2023, I am more aware of how my professional life has changed, slowly but surely, decisively and relentlessly. A new era is here and with it, structural and permanent changes. Everything is constantly changing, nothing remains the same, and our work is also evolving.
Investing is still the same, we try to create portfolios with the highest returns for a given risk profile. However, not so long ago we achieved this by investing in bonds, equities, derivatives, occasionally gold or other commodities, and sporadically some private equity funds.
Looking at current client portfolios, I see that illiquid assets have gained prominence. In addition to the traditionalprivate equity funds, we have private debt, some direct investment in unlisted companies,venture capital and even investments in traditional assets such as real estate have changed and grown to unimaginable levels.
Exposure tohedge funds has also increased considerably. The increased emphasis on illiquid assets means that quarterly liquidity is no longer seen as a disadvantage, quite the contrary. We also have holdings in cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-related assets. Long gone are those days of 2017 when clients asked us what this bitcoin was and why it was skyrocketing. I remember that, given the interest, we had to bring in an expert to tell them.
Next week we have an in-house meeting to outline a new investment opportunity that we are going to channel through a token. We also need to look at the new vehicles that have been announced and see if they offer us more speed and flexibility than the current ones.
It is remarkable that we can invest in things like rentals without having to buy the property, in gardens, in construction, in agriculture, and in art. In short, anything can become an investment asset and the opportunities have to be seized on the fly, channelled and invested in almost at the same time.
In a couple of days we have a long meeting with the estate planning team to review the regulatory and tax changes coming into force and their impact on clients’ family life and wealth. In addition, several members of different families will be changing their residence during the year, young people for studies or to take advantage of job opportunities in other countries, the elderly to live in cities with the infrastructure that allows them to enjoy their leisure time with greater joy and free from worry.
Next week we start with the educational meetings for the young members of the families. I really love this part of my job and it gives me the most satisfaction. How I wish that when I was young I had been taught the importance of savings, the power of compound capitalisation, the benefits of diversification and how to reduce the probability of permanent capital losses, the characteristics of traditional and new assets.
I am delighted to see that even seasoned clients are interested in attending many of these meetings. Our world is more complex than it was a few years ago and with client participation these meetings make it much easier to explain new trends and make investments in assets and in timeframes that were unthinkable only a short time ago.
I think back to the old 60/40 portfolios and smile because of just how distant they now seem. I am very excited about the new reality of our work. It is certainly much more productive and necessary than it was a few years ago. The investable universe has grown exponentially, macro trends are changing rapidly and so is regulation.
In addition, artificial intelligence is already a reality and, despite the initial reluctance of people of my generation, we are applying it because it helps us a lot in our work.
All this forces us to adapt to change in a more dynamic way. Our added value is no longer limited to trying to provide a higher return than our peers, but to seeking solutions that solve a wide range of problems: personal, family, inheritance and, of course, direct and flexible access to the new investment opportunities that we see every day.
And best of all, I have no doubt that when I write these same lines one day in January 2028, I will once again realise how much everything has changed in such a short time.
Dirigentes, 20.01.25