The Main Actors of Financial Advice

Paolo Sironi and Maurizio Ravezzi

There are five main actors in the process of financial advice: professionals on the supply side; clients on the demand side; regulators; financial markets; and, finally, technology. Their interests, ambitions, operational constraints and business opportunities are discussed in this chapter, which highlights how the progressive emergence of digital and evolved financial advice changes their roles and the ways in which they interact.

INTRODUCTION

The process of financial advice is based on the interaction of the five protagonists. First of all, final investors (private and institutional) stand at the centre of the intermediation process. Second, professionals on the supply side play a vital role in providing active advice or discretionary management, as well as enabling self-directed services: banks, platforms, fund managers, brokers, financial advisers and robo-advisors. Third, regulation defines the permissible forms of interaction of all parties. Fourth, market dynamics intersect with human investment decisions to affect personal wealth. Finally, technology has an increasingly active role in designing the forms of advice, operating at the core of the fintech r-evolution. All