Lego for financial education: how Acepi talks to young people

A man riding a bicycle on the back of a tiger? Has an aggressive risk profile. One who stays within his comfort zone represented by an enclosure of plants? He has a low risk profile. Another who keeps his savings inside a transparent and highly visible crystal ball? He has an equally moderate risk profile. Here is finance in pictures. Here is financial education done to children, with children, through constructions created in real time with Lego. This also happens at the Trento Festival: at an event organised by Acepi (the association of financial certificates) dedicated to financial education for young people aged between 16 and 26, Giorgio Beltrami, a professor on contract at the Bicocca University of Milan, took three young people to 'build' various risk profiles with Lego bricks. In order to let them, and the whole audience in a packed hall, experience first-hand the starting point for those who want to approach investments: understanding one's own risk profile in order to build a 'tailor-made' portfolio according to one's own needs.

Poor financial education is one of Italy's sore points. In our country, private wealth is high, but the culture of investing and saving is very low. This endangers the great wealth that Italian families have built up over the decades. 'In Italy, financial culture is very low,' observes financial consultant Ginevra Zucconi Galli Fonseca. 'People often spend more time choosing a sofa than a pension fund. This is why it is increasingly important to find communication channels that reach young people in particular. 'Hence my idea to open an Instagram page dedicated to financial disclosure,' explains Zucconi. But social networks pose various pitfalls ('you have to select serious profiles and be wary of those who promise dream earnings') and above all remain superficial. This is why 'one has to delve deeper'. Everyone must be the architect of their own financial education. Build it brick by brick, like with Lego.

The first bricks are important concepts, as Pierpaolo Scandurra, CEO of Certificates and Derivatives, emphasises: you have to choose what to do with your money ("Hold it? Invest it? Spend it?"), you have to understand your risk profile (prudent, moderate or dynamic) and then choose the composition of your portfolio based on the risk-return combination of each financial instrument. From shares, to bonds, to certificates: 'Flexible instruments,' Scandurra explains, 'with a medium-high expected return and medium risk. These words were shared by Nicola Francia, Acepi's president who opened the day: "Between the intention and an informed investment decision there is financial education," he observed. Acepi has always believed in this. Applying the best asset allocation models and practices through Certificates is now natural for us professionals, but remains challenging for young people. We believe that financial education is the key to market growth'. The hope is that the message will take root. Slowly. Brick by brick.