The sixth edition of Cafemutual IFA event (CIFA) 2019 was a huge success. Themed ‘Lage Raho IFA Bhai’ the event celebrated the grit and determination of the advisory community.
The speakers acknowledged the tectonic changes in the industry but they were optimistic that this was a short term pain and there would be long term gain.
Rajiv Sabharwal, MD, Tata Capital and Chairman Tata MF took the bull by its horns in his session ‘Dealing with Change’. He encouraged advisors to welcome change as it provides opportunities to grow. Ashutosh Bishnoi, MD & CEO, Mahindra MF started his presentation with an announcement 'commissions will fall further but earnings will rise' and followed it with tips to make earnings grow. Prem Khatri, Founder and CEO, Cafemutual shared historical data to show that advisors have battled business challenges before and have grown stronger and wealthier for it. Vinayak Sapre, VVS Ventures sealed the deal with a rap that said ‘Apna Time Aagaya Hai’
The event also addressed the current market volatility through multiple sessions. Industry top honchos such as Anoop Bhaskar, CIO, IDFC MF, Maneesh Dangi, CIO Fixed Income, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Navneet Munot, CIO, SBI MF, Prashant Jain, ED & CIO, HDFC MF and Vetri Subramaniam, Head-Equities, UTI MF shared their gyan on investing in uncertain markets in a panel discussion moderated by Nikunj Dalmia, Managing Editor, ET NOW. Debt guru, Kirtan Shah, COO, Streetsahead made sense of the credit fears in debt markets and said there was no reason to stay away from debt funds.
Vidya Bala, Head of MF research, FundIndia urged advisors to quiz fund managers about their rationale behind investment picks rather than performance.
Four IFAs - Meenakshi Sikchi, Jaykant Dand, Hari Kamat and Vishranth Suresh shared their inspiring stories in Meri kahani, meri zubaani.
Three IFAs Pramod Saraf, Arjun Sarkar and Nitesh Buddhadev took the audience by storm in our first ever open mic session.
Along with current business environment and markets we had several informative sessions on business planning and development. Lulu Raghavan, CEO, Landor gave the advisors insights on building their personal brand. Sanjay Sapre, President, Franklin Templeton encouraged advisors to nudge the conversation towards the client goals instead of talking about performance.
Anuj Kumar, MD & CEO, CAMS shared how technology could be a powerful facilitator for advisory business. Amit Trivedi, Trainer & Author gave insights on succession planning for advisory business. IFA Mahesh Gattani, Balaji Investments shared his formula for running a successful SIP campaign. Karan Bhagat, MD & CEO, IIFL Wealth shared his experience of dealing with the wealthy. Nishant Patnaik, Associate Editor, Cafemutual took inspiration from Bollywood to explain EQ selling.
Swaminathan Aiyer, Leading Economist & Journalist shared the likely election outcomes in 2019 and its impact on growth.
Over 450 delegates comprising investment heads, top mutual fund professionals, IFAs, wealth management heads, participated in the CIFA 2019 event held at Taj Lands End, Mumbai yesterday.
