Global aging: what opportunities for investors?

Daniel Cadiou, founder of Cadexia Épargne, savings, insurance and protection brokerbelieves that the first error remains precisely excess caution. “In France, we are very careful, often too careful”he notes. Many still concentrate most of their savings on the Livret A or LDDS, useful supports for immediate security but insufficient for building a wealth strategy over twenty years.

Health, silver economy, tourism: the sectors which are already concentrating growth

The increase in life expectancy and the decline in the birth rate are profoundly changing household consumption and needs. Health naturally comes first: private clinics, medical robotics, dependency, senior residences, personal services and even technologies linked to home care.

But there silver economy is not limited to medical. High-end tourism, leisure, premium services and even asset management benefit directly from this demographic change. Daniel Cadiou also cites tourism as one of the most promising sectors: “At a certain age, people benefit more. We are talking more and more about leisure, vacations, weekends”. In other words, aging creates less an economy of decline than an economy of longevity.

Wealth management is also becoming an aging market

Global aging also feeds another sector, less visible but just as strategic: that of heritage transmission. Larger inheritances, inheritance decisions, spousal protection, gift taxation… wealth management is also becoming directly driven by longer lifespans.

At the age of 50, life insurance ceases to be a simple savings product to become a real wealth management tool. Thanks to the beneficiary clauseit makes it possible to protect the surviving spouse and anticipate succession outside the traditional inheritance framework on certain sums.

Investment real estate also retains its place, both to generate additional income and to transmit a tangible asset. The patrimonial logic is changing: it is no longer just about yield, but also about inheritance organization. “You always have to think about what happens in the event of death and check whether assets are properly distributed”recalls Daniel Cadiou.

Reorient your portfolio without falling into “all trendy”

Should we then invest massively in health or senior residences? Not necessarily. For the expert, the first rule remains diversification. “I like to diversify. We put it everywhere”he insists.

The trap consists of wanting to “play” a demographic trend as one would follow a stock market trend. A solid portfolio is firstly based on fundamentals: precautionary savings, life insurance, bonds, real estate, SCPI, then only a pocket of exposure to promising sectors.“We must already look at precautionary savings, then a little safe investment in life insurance, euro funds. And then, diversify into stocks, bonds or SCPIs”he explains.

The PER can also become strategic for highly taxed taxpayers. With a marginal tax bracket at 30 %, a payment of 1,000 euros immediately reduces the tax by 300 euros. “If I place 1,000 euros in a PER, the State gives me 300 euros”he reminds us. But be careful: THE PER is not a universal answer. Taxation upon exit must be anticipated to avoid recreating a strong tax burden upon retirement.

One of the biggest pitfalls remains believing that security means performance. With a Livret A at 1.5%, the yield provides poor protection against inflation in the long term. The expert thus recalls the rule of 72: capital invested at 1% takes 72 years to double. At 10% it takes about 7 years. The wealth gap then becomes massive.

After 50 years, the real question is therefore not only where to put your money, but in which economy you choose to invest for the next twenty years.