The success of the Pir, the individual savings plans introduced by the Renzi and Gentiloni governments with the latest budget law, is going beyond all the wildest expectations. The Ministry of the Economy imagined that the Pir could attract between 16 and 18 billion euros but in 5 years. Instead, in just six months, i.e. from the beginning of 2017, the PIRs have already collected 5 billion and everything suggests that they will be able to replicate the performance in the second half of the year, managing to raise the beauty of 10 billion euros in just 12 months.
The success of the PIRs makes Italian families happy who have identified a new medium-long term investment vehicle which has the great advantage of being completely exempt from capital gains taxes if the duration of at least 5 years is respected. But it also makes companies happy, especially small and medium-sized ones, which have in turn identified a new financing channel to strengthen their assets.
The stellar performance of the stocks in the AIM segment of the Piazza Affari Stock Exchange speak for themselves, given that trading has grown this year by 517% and that the increases have reached an average of 21%, clearly higher than that of the FtseMib, to the point that someone spoke of bubble risk, even if for the moment the conditions do not seem to be recognised.
Now, as "Il Sole 24 Ore" also warned on Saturday, care must be taken not to break the toy. Recommendation that applies above all to fund managers and companies, but also to savers.
Asset management managers must not get carried away by greed and must not apply management commissions higher than 2% which risk eliminating the advantages of investing in PIRs for savers. But the managers must also overcome another very dangerous temptation: that of mixing reliable securities in their funds with securities of companies that are not reliable and which risk compromising the final result to the detriment of investors.
As for businesses, despite the AIM freshmen this year being 16, it is clear that the number of companies to which Italian savings flow absolutely needs to expand, but this can be done if a greater number of small and medium-sized companies decide to cross the Rubicon and to be listed on the Stock Exchange, thus making their financial statements more transparent and their securities more attractive.
Even families must and can do their part, not only by approaching the PIRs but by fully understanding the nature of the new financial product and using it for a policy of wise diversification of financial investments. Which mainly means two things: not to concentrate all the savings on the PIRs, which are moreover focused almost exclusively on the Italian stock market, and to select the managers' fund offers very carefully, discarding those that are too expensive and those that are not very convincing.
The PIRs are undoubtedly the financial novelty of the year but only a shrewd teamwork between companies, families and asset managers can ensure that it is not a flash in the pan but instead has a success capable of lasting over time.
