Calendar 2025 Solution Bank

Calendar 2025

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JANUARY

The new year has just begun: have you set your financial goals yet?

Our expert Ilaria Rossato is here to serve as our guide. Ilaria is the Investment Product Manager at Solution Bank and has decades of experience in financial analysis and consulting, including supporting large institutional investors. Here’s what we asked her:

What is the purpose of counseling and what are the reasons why each of us should engage a counselor?

One of the main objectives of financial advice is to protect the investor’s wealth over the long term. The market environment is changing, and in recent years defending assets against inflation is becoming a crucial issue for everyone. The typical “mistake” one is likely to make is to want to beat inflation in the short term, thus loading the portfolio with risk: however, this choice could prove counterproductive or not in line with a long-term goal, which is asset protection. For this reason, it is useful to rely on the figure of the advisor who, with proper planning, makes it possible to join together the client’s objectives and needs, such as protection or growth of invested capital, time horizon, risk tolerance and more. Relying on advice also makes it possible to avoid cognitive bias, which often occurs when making decisions independently and can result in entering and exiting financial markets in a disorganized and unconscious manner.

How does long-term financial planning work?

Generally, one acts with a “strategic” type of allocation, i.e., a long-term allocation that, through the construction of a diversified portfolio with a certain degree of risk defined with the investor, allows one to achieve long-term objectives such as protection or growth of the invested capital. In the short term, the portfolio may experience fluctuations in value, which is why a gradual approach of entry into riskier markets, such as investing via CAP (Capital Accumulation Plan), can be useful. This type of planning allows market entry on a cadenced basis, typically monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually, to mediate the purchase price if the market experiences a downward swing. This type of strategic allocation can be complemented by an allocation called “tactical,” which focuses on the market cycle or recent news, and is accomplished by buying or selling certain instruments in a “tactical” manner, that is, in line with short-term expectations in order to increase portfolio profitability.

Can planning therefore also be managed to meet needs in the short term?

Financial planning is by no means only concerned with long-term choices, such as supplementary retirement or estate planning, but must also be able to meet short- and medium-term goals, such as the need for liquidity for an upcoming purchase or expenses related to one’s children’s studies. In this case, planning may involve periodic receipt of flows (interest, dividends, and coupons) or investment in highly liquid instruments, where liquidity means the possibility of selling the instrument quickly and without capital losses, or-at most-with limited losses.