The Intangible Age

The intangible age has dawned. Welcome to a world buoyed by asset sharing, as ownership slips ever further into the background. Particularly visible in millennials’ lifestyles, this groundswell is gradually taking over all aspects of everyday life, as everything around us becomes available to hire – from phones, computers, and clothes, to free-floating scooters and bikes.

The new generation is no longer prioritizing ownership and possession of consumerist status symbols, preferring instead to experiment with new ways of achieving success and fulfillment. More than just a technological shift linked to an explosion in digital devices, the changes now underway reflect a radical transformation of mindsets.

In this context, insurance companies are serving as social and economic stabilizers, equipping societies with the tools needed to withstand shock and develop over the long term. Olivier Jaillon’s essay delivers enlightening insight into the anthropological and technological breakthroughs currently afoot. In a book that readily shatters the si- lence surrounding inheritance and wealth accumulation, the author offers up a defense of one of his deepest convictions: by facilitating this shift from tangible assets to the intangible age, insurance companies will be playing a direct role in fulfilling our individual and collective aspirations. Fewer constraints, less inequality, more freedom, and greater solidarity – terms destined to become the cornerstones and guiding values of the insurance of the future.