We Wealth | June 2023
The presence of financial advisors under thirty within financial networks is, on average, very low, standing at around 2%.
This, however, is an average figure. As such, it overshadows both welcoming organizations in which financial advisors under thirty reach 7% and other more hesitant organizations in which financial advisors under thirty do not reach 1%.
Today, this is a common issue also in other liberal professional fields, such as craftsmen, notaries, lawyers. However, the field of financial consultancy is currently taking concrete action to address the issue.
In fact, FINER‘s ongoing monitoring reveals that financial advisors under thirty tend to share several distinctive features, which would make their presence particularly advantageous.
In particular, financial advisors under thirty tend to be more satisfied with their job (+17%) as compared to their older colleagues (over 50). It should, however, be noted that this response tends to be conditioned by the initial excitement experienced by young professionals.
Moreover, compared to their colleagues over 50, financial advisors under thirty tend to be more motivated – they represent +34% of the financial professionals who claim to be very proud to work for their bank and feel more aligned with the top management; +29% of the financial professionals who show a higher level of trust in top managers and a higher level of loyalty; +21% of the financial professionals who do not plan on changing companies over the coming three years.
Finally, financial advisors under thirty tend to have a higher level of education (+32% of them hold a university degree) than their colleagues over 50.
The reasons why the number of young financial professionals tends to remain – for now – quite low depend on a series of exogenous and endogenous factors in each network of financial advisors.
Similarly to any other liberal profession, among the exogenous factors is the initial lack of experience and of a consolidated client portfolio, which represents an objective barrier to entry.
On the other hand, among the endogenous factors are corporate policies aimed at selecting, encouraging, and supporting the employment of young talents.
The most successful initiatives developed by financial networks are based on a basic assumption: novices learn to be financial advisors only by job shadowing senior financial professionals, preferably with large portfolios and a desire to grow by entrusting young talents with part of their activity and/or their clients.
The success of such initiatives depends on the desire of senior financial professionals to change from free agents to captains of a team whose growth ambitions are higher than the ambitions of individual professionals.
In fact, all leading portfolio managers of financial networks work, with no exception, with a team made at least of one assistant and a young financial advisor or teams counting dozens of financial professionals, one third of whom is under thirty.
Thus, the successful inclusion of young professionals depends largely on the acknowledgement on the part of senior professionals of both their necessity to grow and distinguish their activity, and of the importance of the support of their network in selecting the best talents.
Indeed, the main advantage held by the best and most forward-looking professionals of financial consultancy lies in the support of their networks and in the awareness that welcoming young and bright financial professionals in their teams can guarantee a successful future to all.
Nicola Ronchetti