Introducing other people to p2p

I would focus on a 'safe' platform like RS. Take them through the statistics, provision fund etc. Then start small and build confidence. But ultimately, if they are not comfortable, it's not worth the stress and anxiety over a bit of extra money

If they invested 10% of their funds in a p2p paying 12%, withdrawing the interest, and the platform did not collapse with a total loss in the first 12 months then they would be ahead even if they lost the lot subsequently.

Ho boy.  Talk to them about it.  Let them share in your enthusiasm, explain your thinking, but don't even try to convince them.  That having been said, let me start out by saying that if I offend that isn't my intent.  But I do recognise it could be a result.  If that's how it pans out, my apologies .

You are their child.  Not their financial advisor.  

A financial advisor has a fiduciary and moral responsibility to try to best meet their client's needs.  Their (as in your parents') needs, not yours.  Seen in the abstract, and from the outside, potential conflict of interest looms large in a picture like this.  Do your parents (in their 70s), with their savings, their assets and their pensions, have enough to live comfortably on?  If so why would they want the stress of worrying about capital loss investing in what is, frankly, if not the Wild West, certainly west of... somewhere most of us are completely comfortable with?  Yes, from a completely rational, mathematical / economic perspective they are not optimising their income (assuming you give any credence to rational economic man etc).  But humans, children and parents included, aren't always utterly rational.  Even when they are they can be rational, about the same things, for different reasons (* for a hopefully amusing aside see the footnote below).

I have had similar (though tax based) discussions with my own parents.  They simply aren't interested in any kind of "rational optimisation".  And... I respect that.  I'm an executor of their will, which I haven't read, and when I do I will honour both it's writing and its intent.  But I won't ever have another conversation with them about maximising what is left to whoever they chose to leave it to. 

To put it bluntly, anybody in their 70s, with family, dependants, loved ones, causes they care about etc, well, their focus is not going to be on maximising what is left for you. If you get a tidy sum after they've gone, alls to the good. But that doesn't mean that they are going to push the boat out into new, uncharted waters, to maximise a return, for you. As a fairly close to home example, some friends and neighbours of mine recently had the husband of the family (in his late 70s) have a stroke. This has entailed fairly extensive rework to their house, long term live in care costs, an equity release mortgage, and so on and so forth before you even consider that this couple, who've been married for the best part of sixty years, have gone from two adults ageing gracefully to one adult and one regressive child, in nappies, aged 79.

Many people in my life are very confident with money, savings, and investment generally.  Many of them are happy to chuck five figure sums at single stocks (not unreasonable given their assets, liabilities, appetite for risk etc).  I haven't managed to sell any of them on the idea of P2P (whilst I have got a couple of friends / acquaintances to borrow via P2P).  To sum up, I think I am basically saying that different people have different appetites for different kinds of risks, including financial, at different stages of their lives.  I remember, with fondness , a friend and near neighbour of mine who was an MD credit trader before the 2008 crash.  He saw it coming.  He sold short.  He made a fortune.  He got laid off.  He would never put a penny in FC because of the "credit risk".

If, in five years' time, after five years successful returns from yours truly, your enthusiasm (and success) sees them won over, and a grand invested in five different platforms, then well done .


RM

* On my second day in the quant group, at a tier 1 IB, a bunch of us went out for a coffee.  There were about 1000 people on our floor.  Three lift lobbies.  Anyway, we went and got our Starbucks, came back to the building, got into the lifts, and went up to floor x.  We (twenty of us?) got out of the lifts, and everybody bar me turned west.  I went east.  I'm fairly tall, with a long stride, so arrived back at our desks at almost the same time as my colleagues.  As I sat down the chap next to me turned to me and said "RM, one of the things you will learn about being in a quant group is optimisation".

I looked at him, big eyed and innocent {cough}, and said "yes Mr Director, but what were you optimising for"?  His reply?  "Well, obviously, reducing the time to get back to our desks to a minimum".

To which I replied.... "Well, my route took me past two of the best looking women on the trade floor".