Bluerating | June 2025
Financial consulting in Italy is constantly evolving, as demonstrated by some trends that have been underway for some time, supported by some evidence.
The first evidence is that the consultant’s work is increasingly a team effort, just think that today 66% of consultants consider the support that colleagues can give to their business very important, in 2005 the percentage was 10%.
Working in a team is the new mantra and is also a consequence of two factors: the average growth of the financial consultants’ portfolio, more than doubled in twenty years; the acquisition of clients with more complex needs.
Private clients, with financial assets on average exceeding one million Euros, are increasingly turning to financial consultants whose market share in the most capitalized segment has also doubled.
The second evidence is the increase in the weight of the client’s support in the choice of investment solutions, if in 2005 75% of consultants declared to move independently in the choice of investment houses, today this percentage has reduced to 34%.
The consolidation of investment alternatives to mutual funds – EFTs, illiquid investments, policies – certainly requires greater support and a synthesis that were once unthinkable.
The third evidence is represented by the expansion of the offer to the themes of protection and supplementary pension, for which financial advisors need specialists and a dedicated structure.
Proposing protection and supplementary pension solutions requires specific skills and almost all banks that also focus on this offer provide teams of specialists who support financial advisors.
The fourth evidence is that in this context financial consultancy understood as an activity to be carried out off-site no longer seems to be exclusive to financial advisor networks.
Almost all banks are enabling their managers to operate off-site through exam preparation and registration with the OCF (The Supervisory Body and Maintenance of the Single Register of Financial Advisors).
All this is confirmed by the growth in the number of bank employees registered with the Body, which also sees a greater presence of women and young people.
The main bank in the country – Intesa Sanpaolo – which introduced the mixed employee-agent contract in 2017, has relaunched this figure by requalifying it as Global Advisor.
Today the Bank can count on over a thousand Global Advisors, whose position is open to different levels of seniority, from graduates with no experience to professionals with a consolidated portfolio.
The training path includes a 6-month training internship with a dedicated tutor, and university professors for preparation for the OCF exam. This formula promotes employment and allows the bank to remain competitive in a constantly changing economic and social scenario.
This is an absolute novelty also at a European level, this to demonstrate that financial consultancy in Italy is an excellence in continuous evolution.
Nicola Ronchetti