At a time when Kerala is reeling under a natural calamity, many IFAs have joined hand to help the flood victims.
The Trivandrum Chapter of Association Independent Financial Advisors (AIFA) has organised a drive to collect money for the affected people. “We have started collecting funds for the victims since the last one week. While the plan of action will be decided in the next 3 to 4 days, we have already received contributions from fellow advisors,” says Oommen Kadakampally, President, Trivandrum Chapter of AIFA.
Following their footsteps, members of All Kerala Independent Financial Advisors Association (AKIFA) too have come together to help the victims. “Along with distributing food and rations in the affected areas, the members have donated Rs.1 lakh to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund yesterday. The IFA association has collected another Rs.4 lakh today which they plan to donate to the relief fund,” said Gopalakrishnan A, President AKIFA.
In another instance, a Madurai based IFA helped the son of a Delhi based IFA reach home safely. On August 18 2018, Milind Shah from Ahmedabad popularly known as ‘Money Bhai’ who runs a Telegram group of over 2500 IFAs ‘It’s all about money’ received a message from Delhi IFA Anup Mukherjee wanting to know if Shah knew anyone from the Telegram group in Kerala who could help his son Devesh, a student of Naval Academy near Kochi reach Delhi. Since all flights were cancelled from Kochi, Devesh has to come to Madurai by train to take a flight for Delhi.
Shah shared numbers of a few Madurai based IFAs with Anup. One amongst them was Marimuthu. Hearing of Anup’s predicament, Marimutu assured him that once Devesh reached Madurai, he would help him reach home.
Devesh took a special train from Kochi to Madurai that too was delayed by 13 hours. Finally, when Devesh reached Madurai, Marimuthu who waited for him for hours helped him rush to the airport only to find that his flight had taken off. Marimuthu then arranged for accommodation and a new ticket for Devesh. Furthermore, on realising August 20 was Devesh’s birthday, Marimuthu took him to Meenakshi Temple for blessings and helped him board the flight back to Delhi. The beauty of this incident is that without even knowing each other, a Madurai based IFA helped his Delhi based peer at the time of need.
Just as advisors are helping affected people, fund houses too have started initiatives to help the Kerala fund victims.
Quantum MF has started SMILE facility, which allows investors to give a small portion of their savings to an NGO of their choice. Under their #DoForKerala campaign, the fund house is urging investors to join hands to support the Kerala victims through a small donation in this time of distress.
Another Chennai based mutual fund is also planning to contribute to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.
These incidences show that in times of calamity, the advisors and the industry come together to demonstrate that ‘it is not all about money but humanity.’