Dr. Rajshekhar, a renowned Neurosurgeon in his late fifties, lives in an affluent area of Bengaluru with his wife Dr. Vimla and 2 children. Dr. Rajshekhar has been a client of a very large wealth management firm for the last 8 years. Despite this, there were 2 questions that were always bothering him at the back of his mind. He had never discussed the 2 questions with his wealth advisor because no one had bothered to ask him. Additionally, he was so busy with his work that he hardly had any time to think through his questions or ask his advisory firm.
He had a portfolio of all sorts of products. At a superficial level everything seemed fine, as he had a sizeable portfolio. However, deep down things were bothering him and to his luck, he got a call and email from an individual MFD Vijay Dinanath Chavan (Names have been changed for obvious reasons). Vijay was pretty persistent in reaching out to Dr. Rajshekhar and finally Dr. Rajshekar gave him a meeting with a caveat that “I already have an advisor for the last 8 years and I am not sure what value you will add.” Vijay gave the doctor comfort that he was there just to have a conversation and made only one request that Dr. Vimla be made a part of the conversation.
The meeting was to be done online through a Zoom call because of social distancing and the lockdown. Vijay started the meeting by saying that he would like to walk both of them through a process & an experience. He asked them if they had defined their financial goals or thought of it. They said they had never defined it specifically but at a broad level they knew they had to fund the children’s education, provide for Vimla’s mother, fund their retirement, help a school that they support and so on.
Vijay told the couple, “I understand that you have not defined these financial goals specifically and I will walk you through our experience that will help you to set these goals. Let’s find the answer of these questions first:
- Am I doing OK financially?
- Am I saving enough? If not, then what needs to happen?
- What is my number? How much is enough?”
“Is this great for you?” Dr. Rajshekhar was speechless because the first 2 questions that Vijay had mentioned were exactly the 2 questions running in his mind. He wondered whether there was a divine intervention here. He just could not believe what had just happened. He was expecting a product pitch from Vijay but instead the start of the conversation was completely different. Vijay never spoke about a product or an investment strategy.
By this time, Dr. Rajshekhar had become a client (Vijay had demonstrated his value). What came next cemented the doctor couple’s conviction that they had found a real advisor.
Vijay carefully walked Dr. Rajshekhar and Dr. Vimla online through the visual experience of setting goals, planning for them, helping them go through a risk assessment exercise and then with the proposed investments. Dr. Rajshekhar set 8 goals, shared his entire existing portfolio of Rs.6 crore equity and Rs.3 crore in debt and allocated assets to each of his goals with Vijay’s guidance. The meeting lasted for 2 hours and the doctor couple was totally involved in co-creating their plan. This was not Vijay’s plan (advisor’s plan) for them, it was their own plan (client’s plan) that they had created along with Vijay’s help. There is a huge difference between an advisor’s plan and a client’s Plan (Happy to help you understand this and will be a future nano learning as well).
They had so much clarity on whether they were doing ok and if they were saving enough. Not only this, they were also clear on what their number was, how they could take a couple of exotic vacations every year yet achieve all their goals and still leave money for their children. This gave them so much comfort that they immediately decided to start a SIP of Rs. 5 Lakh and a sizeable one-time investment. They also decided that they would move their entire portfolio to Vijay as he had demonstrated solid value in a few hours and made them feel secure and at peace.
Dr. Vimla added “For the first time in my life, I have understood what’s really happening with our financial life. He used to be worried about whether we had enough, and I am so happy that the worry is permanently laid to rest.”
Vijay himself was so overjoyed not because he had closed a huge client virtually but because of the happy difference he had made in their lives.
Amar Pandit, CFA, CFP is the founder of of HappynessFactory.in and author of several books on personal finance.. The views expressed in this article are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cafemutual.
