Advisor | June 2021
We know it as Recovery Fund or Plan, but its real name is Next Generation EU.
The objectives are promoting the digital transformation of the Country, supporting the innovation of the production system and investing in two Italian key sectors, tourism and culture. The investments included in the plan ensure the development of a high-speed access network and the access to broadband Internet across the Country.
30% of the European funds are going in support of the fight against climate change, reaching the highest percentage of all time.
How will this affect the field of financial consultancy which, despite the situation, is reaching one record after the other (with a client portfolio worth 694 billion euros and which in March 2021 registered an increase of over 20% vs 2020)?
In order to answer this question, we need to start from another figure. Currently, the amount of liquidity on the current accounts of Italian businesses is worth 492 billion euros (source: Banca d’Italia; data: February 2021).
The number is quite striking, all the more if we consider that the increase in the amount of liquidity for businesses over the last year is worth 94 billion euros.
When businesses do not invest and, instead, keep money on their current accounts, they consequently give up growing, developing and, as a consequence, they miss the chance of creating wellbeing for shareholders and jobs.
The aim of the Next Generation EU fund is to activate a series of new ventures, but also to instill trust most of all in companies and entrepreneurs, restarting the economic and financial circle.
Will this be enough? Certainly not. Within offer-driven markets, proactivity is fundamental, most of all on the part of financial professionals, be them employees or financial advisors.
By the transitive property, if the field of financial networks has managed to register a double-digit increase in a moment of crisis, it is reasonable to expect that it is going to do even better in the recovery phase.
In truth, this cannot be taken for granted, first of all, for anthropologic reasons: the financial advisor is at its best in times of strong complexity of the market and under pressure.
The second reason is that financial advisors, just as bank employees, will have to reimagine their role and their job.
Digital skills, awareness towards environmental issues and the ability to raise awareness on unexpressed needs in the areas of protection, asset management and access to credit will make all the difference.
The chemistry between clients and financial professionals is going to be more and more crucial: the duo client-consultant is the secret to success.
More than in the past, only those who talk proactively to their clients will have a future.
If a good beginning bodes well, it is not too daring to suppose that the field of financial consultancy will reach the threshold of 1.000 billion euros by 2023.
Nicola Ronchetti