Trends & Interesting Facts Through the Eyes of A Specialist; Mr. Marco Romano.

I had the chance to speak with Mr. Marco Romano about investment grade diamonds and he shared so many secrets. He loves and views diamonds as the most precious stone in nature.

F: How did it all start? What is your story with diamonds? 

M: I started to work with diamonds indirectly. I have been following my parents, who sold precious luxury objects without solely focusing on diamonds. Previously I had different roles in my life; I sold luxury apartments as investments in Italy and abroad…only working in the most beautiful places!

Later I worked in finance, in wealth management. I took care of the investment portfolios of my clients. I saw more and more often that my customers are investing in precious gemstones, in gold and in works of art. This led me to pick up again the same activity as my parents and proposed adding diamonds to my client’s assets. To my great surprise, there were many clients and a growing interest towards investment diamonds. Looking back; this was a turning point where my career as an investment diamond specialist has took off.

Suddenly I saw a huge interest for a safe and secure product within the circle of my investor clientele and even my clients with smaller saving portfolios. The key for them was that diamonds are a safe haven (safe haven meaning: an investment that keeps its value, especially when other investments are falling or may fall in value); a form of investment where they don’t have to worry about maintenance. Clearly, investment diamonds became an asset class and are an excellent safe haven product as they are not considered to be a speculative type of investment, simply because they are long-term investments. Investors got used to live with the ups and downs of the financial market, a volatile climate with big collapses and cyclical plunges. Think about it; in the last 15 years we are facing some type of difficulty every 2-3 years. Remember 2008, then we saw massive changes on the stock market, the real estate market and now we are facing a pandemic. Today people want to be able to preserve their capitals and lessen the risk of losing it.

That is how investment diamonds are coming to the picture as a reliable safe haven.

F: I find it remarkable about your career that even though you have been successful in different roles, your path somehow returned to diamonds… and you humbly went on to learn from one of the most reputable institutions; the HRD Antwerp.

M: Yes, diamonds are my passion. I always wanted to satisfy the needs of my clients and this was their clear demand. I developed portfolios that are more personalized and adjusted to the client’s needs. My experience with other investment types just made it clear that it is safer to invest in special diamonds. From here we grew to become the first Italian company which buys directly from Tel Aviv, Antwerp and India and is really providing all sizes, cuts and colors of diamonds.

F: It is quite a privilege to become a member of a Diamond Bourse, and Real Diamond Invest became a member of 3 Diamond Bourses…How did it happen?

M: We have been working hard for many years with different sources and manufacturers and these growing collaborations led us to be able to get to this point.

F: What has been the oddest idea or use of diamonds that you’ve come across so far in your
career?

M: I cannot recall something very odd, we rather had surprising and smart ideas from our clients.

For example, buying as an investment and just keeping it in a safe for their kids and nephews. Some people allocate them in equivalent collections to avoid confusion or any disagreement in the future between their kids. I find it smart to already prepare equal packages that can be easily passed down to the next generation as a heritage.

The other type of client who surprised me is the type, who slowly becomes more and more educated and making better and better choices.

We also have regular shoppers, who would acquire serious quantities without even seeing the stones… they trust us, and they keep their goods in our vault. By the way, this is a complimentary service that we offer. 

There are collectors, who love and enjoy seeing diamonds… Sometimes they start with small stones and slowly grow the value each time. Collectors fall in love with these gems! Oftentimes they ask us to bring in their stones to our laboratory to have the chance to study them and look at them in a secured environment.

F: If you were asked to give a Ted Talk…which topic would you pick to discuss?

M: I would talk about a contradiction, a surprising fact…that investment diamonds are not only available for rich people! There is this idea that investing in diamonds is only an opportunity for the ultra-rich. Realistically, in the past it was like this because only the richest invested in diamonds. Today we discovered that diamonds are for everyone from small savers to big investors! Clearly it must be adapted to the needs of every customer, but today even the small investor can start around € 10.000. The important thing is to always work with a specialist company, not everyone can help the client. Only a specialist can help, since not every diamond is an investment diamond. Our mission is to educate our clients about the characteristics of the market, the diamonds, and the investment diamonds.

Another surprising detail about investment diamonds is that there are no taxes to be paid on the capital-growth after you sell a diamond.

We only work with the three most prestigious international gemological certifications. These gemological institutions analyze the stones and certify them based on their characteristics. This is especially important for the future resale possibilities and to know what the customer really bought. We only buy certified stones with a certain provenance. We respect the Kimberly Process to make sure that our stones are conflict-free, excluding child labor or any harmful proceedings. That is how we know that we only deal with ethical diamonds. We control and check every diamond in our in-house laboratory.

F: What trends do you see in using diamonds as a form of investment in 2020-2021?

M: We have been witnessing a couple of special years now in the sense that we face a pandemic and closure of some mines as they became depleted. Therefore, the production is decreasing, and we see that there are some more forecasts about closing mines. In these years, we have seen something new thanks to Covid in every industry. Interestingly there is a growth in demand for diamonds in 2021 and their value continues to grow. Consequently, we are sure of a strong growth for the coming months and years.

F: If you could have a giant billboard anywhere with anything on it about diamonds, what would it say?  

M: Every. Woman. Deserves. A. Nice. Big. Diamond!

This article was sponsored. Written by www.frankassparklers.com.

Franka’s Sparklers

Bespoke diamonds and jewellery Paris-London-Milan 

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