MAPFRE consolidates its asset management business

The low interest rates that monetary policy has been navigating in recent years have forced investors to pursue a more diversified and specialized strategy for profitability. This was precisely the objective with which MAPFRE drove its asset management division — MAPFRE Gestión Patrimonial (MGP). Almost four years after its launch, this area has managed to establish itself as a savings and investment solution, especially since the health crisis erupted.

At the present time, MGP is channeling an advised volume in excess of 800 million euros, with a growth of 23 percent during the pandemic — a result of the acquisition of new client assets totaling 10,000 euros. In year-on-year terms, the increase experienced by managed assets was 42 percent, “A figure that demonstrates clients’ acceptance of the advisory model based on the open-choice option, with respect to those products that best fit their investment profiles, regardless of the brand that manages them,” the firm points out. The rally is also the result of MAPFRE opening new offices in Bilbao and Seville, led by Enrique de la Fuente Lozano and Juan Antonio Mallofret, respectively.

Including these, the insurer now has five units in Spain dedicated to financial advice, in addition to those based in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. And let’s not forget the additional openings planned for the next two years in the cities where the proposal has been best received. “The current climate of uncertainty and high level of market volatility, combined with the continuation of the low interest rate environment for longer than anticipated, make the expert professional financial advice we offer a vital commodity that is highly valued by our clients,” says Miguel Ángel Segura, the General Director of MAPFRE Inversión Sociedad de Valores and Head of MAPFRE Gestión Patrimonial. The expansion has also been accompanied by an increase in the number of financial advisors, to 94 agents, serving an average of 60 clients each.

These are senior job profiles, requiring experience advising on financial products and accredited by the main financial training institutions in Spain. “All of this has led to a successful acquisition of managed assets exceeding initial expectations, in a year as complex as this one,” says the unit’s Business Development Director, Enrique Palmer. In addition to human capital, another of the pillars on which MGP is based is technology. This has involved the ongoing improvement of its open-architecture advisory platform by MAPFRE in relation to the construction of fund portfolios, support for the advice, monitoring and control of the correct execution of orders, as well as preparation and follow-up of proposals. This technology pillar also includes adapting tools for a “fully digital” user experience, ranging from contracting Logalty services, developing CRM for agents or deploying self-service.

Conscious of the importance that alliances play in the development of financial activity, it is worth highlighting the accession of MAPFRE Inversión SV as a corporate member, as well as the directors of the five MGP offices to the IEAF (Instituto Español de Analistas Financieros — Spanish Institute of Financial Analysts). It should be noted that MAPFRE is a sponsor of the FEF (Fundación de Estudios Financieros — Financial Studies Foundation) of the institute itself.

To this end, MAPFRE Inversión SV has signed a sponsorship agreement with ASEAFI, (Asociación de Empresas de Asesoramiento Financiero — the Association of Financial Advisory Companies), a company that brings together the main financial advisory firms in Spain, and has participated in the first online financial and technological advice event: Current and future perspectives. As part of this, the MAPFRE Inversión advisory platform was presented, as well as applications designed for the financial advisory firms as a group. Through the MGP platform, clients have access to an offering of more than 15,000 mutual funds, with which they can subscribe, transfer and redeem shares on an ongoing basis. MGP offers profiled portfolios, financial planning, market analysis, a mutual and pension funds platform, savings insurance and online brokers.

Both the choice of investments and the development of investment processes are based on ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria.