High net worth investors are not piling into high risk investments as many remember massive stock market falls in the recent past, according...

High net worth investors are not piling into high risk investments as many remember massive stock market falls in the recent past, according to senior wealth management executives at this week’s Reuters wealth summit in Geneva. "There's a growing understanding that returns will be in the single digits, not the double digits over the long term," Marianne Hay, chief executive officer for global wealth management Europe at Citigroup told the summit. But now wealthy investors are more concerned about capital preservation, longer-term financial objectives and diversification. "Ten years ago, if you tried to talk to a client about risk, it was very difficult to make it clear to them exactly what markets can do. But now they are more willing to say to themselves: 'How much risk do I need to assume to meet my life objectives?'" Tom Dicker, head of portfolio management for high net worth individuals in New England at Mellon Private Wealth Management Group in Boston, told the summit. But this attitude may not be a global phenomenon. "I was in Asia after [market declines in] 1998 and 2000, and the risk appetite decreased a lot, but they are moving again now to more risk...The capability of forgetting a difficult past is real," said Patrick du Saint, head of private banking Switzerland at BNP Paribas.