Ronak Hindocha is a next generation IFA who wants to make the life of investors and advisors easy by providing financial planning just on a click.
His Journey
Ronak entered the financial sector in the year 2005 after completing his MBA in Finance. In his first job he was a part of the corporate finance team at Hinditron Consulting. In his first assignment he was supposed to raise funds for Ffreedom Financials, a financial planning firm owned by Sumeet Vaid.
“By the time I had completed raising funds for Ffreedom, Sumeet had already absorbed me in his company. When I joined Sumeet, we were only three professionals. This was an advantage as I was involved with each and every activity of the company which helped me to know the segment very well,” said Ronak.
While working in Ffreedom, Ronak fell in love with personal finance and decided to pursue a career in this field.
There he learnt about asset allocation, how to develop a financial plan and other aspects of financial planning. After gaining experience for few years in this field, he realized that all big IFAs targeted HNIs for making financial plans. No one catered to the vast segment of salaried employees earning Rs 5 lakh- Rs 25 Lakh.
He saw a big opportunity in this segment. Being a tech savvy professional, he wanted to create an online financial planning portal. That’s when, in May 2011, he decided to launch his company – Futurewise.
Business Model
Futurewise is an online portal where investors can make financial plans online. But the only drawback of the model was that the plan was not immediately available to the investor. The data had to be submitted online and then the financial planners would work on the data and develop a plan in two days. This model did not have many takers. Meanwhile, he met Alok Kejriwal, an established digital entrepreneur. Alok has launched four online portals and sold one of them to Walt Disney.
The software earlier required manual intervention to make recommendations. Besides, Ronak was not able to attract the right talent required for making financial plans. Ronak realized that being time consuming and capital intensive, this model was not scalable. Based on Alok’s suggestion, Ronak turned his software completely automatic. For instance, clients can register themselves and provide details about their income, family, past investments, goals, etc and advice is generated instantaneously.
Besides, investors can also get advice on any financial decision through qualified financial advisors (people who have completed CFP) over the phone. “It is now easy for people to make financial plans online, sitting in the comfort of their offices. Investors do not need to travel anywhere for guidance. They can get any advice or assistance on the plan directly over the phone,” said Ronak.
He also added that the response has been great as 100 investors have already enrolled themselves for using this software for free. He plans to provide free advice to the first 1000 investors after the new version goes live. His idea behind this strategy is to understand client’s psychology better. He will study these 1000 investors and then chalk out a plan.
The portal also provides the option of doing transactions online. Rohan wants to currently earn through trail commission and not by charging clients.
According to Ronak, this is perhaps the first-of-its-kind software in India which provides automated financial advice at the click of a button. His software has already generated curiosity among advisors who are nudging him to develop similar software exclusively for advisors.
Marketing techniques
Ronak is very clear about his target audience and therefore he mostly addresses offices, corporates and conducts seminars for employees earning between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 25 lakh.
He is also a member of many entrepreneur portals and forums where he regularly puts up articles on personal finance and financial products.
Advice for advisors
Be more proactive in engaging with clients and move out of the transaction mode. New advisors need to explore new medium to connect with their clients.