Just because a fintech is 100% digital doesn’t mean its clients don’t need real-life advisors. “The hybrid model is essential, customers are certainly autonomous, but it is essential to be available to answer their questions”, estimates Sébastien d’Ornano, the president of Yomoni. This actor has been increasingly highlighting its advisors since 2021..
“Their role has gradually become central: with the drop in the CAC 40 in 2022, our clients increasingly needed explanations on the markets”, remembers Sébastien d’Ornano. Yomoni is a portfolio management company approved by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF). A rare complete status in the world of fintech, authorizing it to provide advice.
Advice is also widely promoted by players in life insurance and online retirement savings, who are both insurance brokers and financial investment advisors (CIF), which allows them to deliver advice.
Conversely, neobrokers offering shares do not often go into this area. At Trade Republic, customer service accessible by email or via the app focuses on technical questions about the portfolio, but is not intended to advise on securities.
Premium Investors
Same principle at Shares, whose service was launched in November 2023 in France after a trial run in the United Kingdom, and which does not give direct advice. But “Shares is designed like a social network: our premium investors, whose financial experience we have verified, provide access to their portfolio, from which other clients can draw inspiration if they wish”explains Benjamin Chemla, co-founder.
These influencers who are themselves Shares customers publish posts whose content is moderated by the start-up. “It’s about making sure they don’t give advice, since they’re not authorized to do so.” But they can explain why they decided to buy or sell a security or crypto »adds Benjamin Chemla.
Social trading is also in effect at eToro. The neobrocker even offers its clients the ability to automatically replicate the portfolio of an experienced investor. The client can thus copy the purchases and sales of the Dutch Jorden Boer, a fan of growth stocks particularly in tech, who has 56,500 followers on eToro, including 10,300 “copiers”.