UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt feeling for their wealth - If there was any doubt that the world's richest have successfully weathered the economic wreck of the pandemic while inequality was growing, the results of a new UBS customer survey should completely dispel them.

"Emerging from the pandemic with their wealth virtually intact, investors feel grateful for what they have, but two-thirds feel guilty for their own fortune," the Swiss bank says in a report released Wednesday that measures the sentiment of 3,800 investors with at least a million dollars in investable assets.

UBS, one of the world's largest wealth managers, with $ 3.1 trillion in assets invested as of March, says 66% of respondents said they felt "guilty for being luckier than many other people."

UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt

Nearly half of respondents said they plan to increase charitable giving because they want to help drive positive change in the world. More than half of business owner customers, a subgroup of respondents, said the same thing.

These kinds of claims, a growing list of requests among high-net-worth clientele, and a growing preference for sustainable investments are influencing the way financial advisors work.

UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt

UBS ' wealth division and its rivals, such as Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, have sought ways to act as a one-stop shop for wealthy clients while retaining fees within the company. They can help wealth clients with a transaction through the investment bank, for example, or turn a client using financial solutions in the workplace into a long-term client.

"The advisor of the future is accompanying a client throughout his financial life, not just giving recommendations on which investments to buy for himself," Jason Chandler, head of wealth management at the firm in the United States, explains.

UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt: UBS is investing in services that directly serve clients seeking more advice around philanthropy, as well as on family governance and probate matters, he explains. The company has located experts advising in those areas in private wealth-focused offices in some of the major U.S. cities to help clients with particularly complex financial situations.

That may mean offering guidance on donor-managed funds or defining statements of intent for clients around their philanthropic interests. UBS has some 9,600 advisors, of whom just over 6,300 were in the United States in March.

UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt

The company's survey, which asked investors from 15 markets, including the United States, Italy, France and Hong Kong, also found that the multiple crises of the pandemic have pushed more investors to become interested in sustainable investment.

UBS found that 90% of respondents said they now want to align their investments with their values, and 59%, led by Asian clients, said they are more interested in sustainable investment than before the pandemic.

They're not the only ones. Bank of America analysts told clients Tuesday that so far in 2021, nearly $ 3 in $ 10 of global equity inflows have gone to funds focused on the environment, social and corporate governance, and assets under management in the group of some 1,900 global ESG funds they track doubled to a record $ 1.4 trillion in a year.

UBS helping rich hider money post pandemic triggered guilt

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Spain loses 90,000 companies since the coronavirus pandemic began: single-worker microenterprises are being most affected

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the Spanish economy hard. Although 80 per cent of the jobs destroyed had recovered, the negative effects of the health crisis on the labour market were still being felt: 3.9 million people were unemployed.

The destruction of companies and the damage to the productive fabric over the last 15 months is a fact. According to the latest affiliation data published by the Social Security, Spain currently has 89,351 fewer companies than in February 2020, the last month before the coronavirus infections were unleashed and the first state of alarm was decreed.

In February 2020 there were 1,481 million companies in Spain, while at the end of May 2020 there are 1,392 million, although these data do not include companies under the special Sea and Coal regimes.

SMEs are being the hardest hit in this crisis. Of the nearly 90,000 closed companies, 52,344 were microenterprises, i.e. with only one employee; 20,639 had between 2 and 5 employees; 15,219 had between 6 and 50 contracted workers.

These companies have been eligible for aid to cope with the restrictions, but the first payments of direct aid approved by the Government will not be made until this June 2021. In total, 7,000 million euros will be allocated to try to save SMEs.

35% of Spanish companies have only one worker, and 39% have between 2 and 5 workers. This characteristic means that the productive fabric suffers more in the face of a crisis, especially considering that the pandemic caused a sharp decline in sales and turnover in the hardest months of last year.

Despite the poor economic situation, it must be clarified that larger companies are coping with the crisis more easily. Since March 2020, 689 companies of between 51 and 100 workers have closed, while 518 companies of between 101 and 500 employees have had to lower the blind.

It is noteworthy that companies with more than 500 workers have grown throughout the crisis. In May 2021 there are 58 more companies than in February 2020.