A $2 trillion investment chief corrects the ‘myths about millennials’ when it comes to investing

You might have heard that millennials are a little different.

As my colleague Kate Taylor has noted, their tastes and habits are endangering a whole host of industries. They aren’t buying homes. They’re not eating at Buffalo Wild Wings or Applebee’s. They don’t like golf.

But according to Mark Haefele, the global chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management, a lot of what he has heard about the millennial generation is a “myth.” Specifically, the idea that they are more of a “me” generation just isn’t the case, he told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Instead, millennials are driving a shift towards sustainable and impact investing, as they search for a so-called double bottom line investment, or one that delivers both a financial and social return. He said:

Haefele:There are many myths about millennials, that they are more of a “me” generation. This is something that has probably come up since the times of the Greeks or the Romans, that “Oh, these young kids today, they’re more selfish.” In fact, we simply don’t see that.

They are more interested than their parents’ generation in having an investment that has a social return as well as an investment return. For us, that’s a very important distinction. Other ones, around being more facile with technology, those are probably true, but everyone wants to be able to connect with their investment manager through multiple points, whether it’s face to face, sometimes you want to do it on the internet, sometimes you want to do it on your phone. Those changes are probably a place where millennials lead, but where many others follow.