Having been a part of the insurance industry from an early age of 19, N. Vishwanath chose a difficult path to grow by parting ways with LIC and moving to competitive products purely to serve client interests.
N. Vishwanath took up his family business of insurance advisory at the age of 19 after his father’s demise. He was in college at that time. His father, a divisional manager with LIC, was handling insurance portfolios of clients post his retirement. For close to 10 years, Vishwanath was only recommending LIC products.
Dissatisfied with the service and lack of competitiveness, Vishwanathan parted ways with LIC when the private insurers set up shop in India,. “I didn’t gel with the LIC culture. Service is the birth right of clients. Private insurers are more serious about growth, client acquisition, and customer service,” says Vishwanath.
Dropping the advisor’s hat, he stepped into the corporate world and joined HDFC Standard Life Insurance as a senior business development manager. He was among their first employees. Following a long and successful stint at HDFC, he joined a start-up wealth management firm where he spent two years.
Life, however, had different plans for Vishwanath. In 2006, he turned in to an IFA and started presenting the concept of mutual funds to his existing clientele. His mutual fund business took off well. For the first four years, Vishwanath operated out of a makeshift office combining two garages in Sion. In 2011, he bought a relatively bigger office in Chembur. He is proud that his father’s clients are still with him today.
He didn’t adopt any of the typical marketing strategies like fliers, newsletters or presentations to grow his client base. Referral was his only magic tool to acquire clients. Today, Vishwanath is catering to around 80 families.
Business Model
His wife, Visalakshy Vishwanath has been a vital support and backbone for his business since he ventured into mutual funds. She handles the day-to-day operations of his business, supported by a 7-person back office team.
Since his office was situated in a prime area in Mumbai’s suburban Sion during his initial days, one of his close friends had suggested he run a retail model wherein clients walk in and fill forms. But he didn’t adopt such a practice. “Hordes of people will come to fill forms but many of them will also come to redeem during bad times. I am not saying retail is bad but one needs to have a clear focus,” says Vishwanath.
Vishwanath is particular about the fund houses he works with. He has a soft corner for DSP BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, HDFC and Birla Sun Life because of their ethics, value, compliances and business approach.
He doesn’t deal in products which he doesn’t fathom even if his clients call up to invest in commodities or forex markets.
Vishwanath says he never advices products just because they are yielding high commission. This is perhaps the reason for his shift towards mutual funds. “Had I continued selling LIC, I’d have been richer. But I wanted to do business, ethically,” asserts Vishwanath.
His take on regulations
Vishwanath has strong views about the regulatory changes unfolding in the industry. He feels that the entire advisory community is being punished because of the unscrupulous practices by a few distributors. “SEBI has cut the pie rather than growing it. The regulations are fast paced. The concept paper doesn’t apply to other products,” he says. He stresses on the need for regulators to spread the message about charging for advice.