Advisor | March 2024
77% of Italians do not have a contact person for managing their savings, so much so that they concentrate them on the purchase of properties and liquidity in bank deposits.
The absence of a continuous dialogue with an expert for the management of one’s savings is equivalent to the lack of the possibility of concretely realizing one’s projects.
A third of the wealthiest customers – upper affluent or private – have a regular dialogue with their investment contact person, even, when this is a financial advisor, the percentage exceeds fifty percent.
The financial wealth of Italian families who rely on a CF or a PB grows on average more than those who do not use a professional.
An analysis of data from the last ten years highlights that from 2012 to 2022 the wealth of families who use a professional has grown on average by 165% compared to 14% of those who cannot count on a trusted contact person.
All this also has an impact in terms of economic and financial inequality, even if Italy is significantly better off than other European countries.
Based on the first results of the quarterly statistics of the Distributional Wealth Accounts conducted by the ECB and processed by the Bank of Italy, we are below the EU average for concentration of wealth, on the same levels as France and behind Germany which appears the country with the greatest degree of inequality in terms of net wealth.
Nonetheless, the 5% of the richest Italian families own 46% of the total net wealth, this is what we read in the analysis of the Bank of Italy: the less well-off families mainly rely on home ownership while the wealthier ones hold a more diversified portfolio in shares, deposits, policies.
The saving capacity of Italian families is still strong, 39% of Italians declare that they save without too much effort and 52% do not feel at peace if they do not save. The concept of saving is associated above all with two fundamental words: future and security.
To best manage your savings and convert them into profitable investments, trust in the banking, financial and insurance system is fundamental and must be fuelled with strong doses of financial education.
The wealthiest among the customers are also the most knowledgeable, it is legitimate to ask ourselves whether they are more knowledgeable because they are richer or whether they are richer because they are more knowledgeable.
In terms of impact on one’s wealth, the choice of the right contact person and one’s ability to discern on issues relating to the management of one’s financial assets account for 66%.
In other words, a profitable activity that allows you to accumulate significant assets weighs just over a third, so it is certainly a necessary but not sufficient condition for the assets to maintain their value over time and be passed down to heirs.
History teaches us how easy it is to squander large fortunes, perhaps built over many generations, the inability to choose the right contact person, one or more wrong investments can ruin assets accumulated over decades or even centuries of activity.
A good financial advisor and sound financial education can certainly help reduce economic inequalities.
Nicola Ronchetti