In this edition of ‘Principal Business Champions – Winning Ideas’, we asked distributors to share with us how they are rebuilding their clients’ confidence in mutual funds.
This poll is a joint initiative between Principal Mutual Fund and Cafemutual that offers a platform to the mutual fund distributor (MFD) community to share their valuable experiences.
We have received some interesting responses from distributors. Here are the entries that received the highest votes.
Website winner: Srikanth Matrubai, Srikavi Wealth
‘Regained investors’ trust in mutual funds by sharing articles and details of personal MF investments’
Clearly, my clients were also concerned about the recent steep fall in market. To address their concerns, I shared some write-ups on how the market had seen similar corrections in 2008, 2000, 1992 and how it bounced back each time. In fact, I wrote 8 articles around such events and measures to deal with volatility.
I also shared with them my personal MF investment statements since 1996. It reflects how my investment portfolio has performed over the years despite volatility and difficult phases. As a result, many clients have decided to stay put. In fact, some of them have increased their monthly SIPs and invested decent lump sums too.
Facebook winner: Santosh Kumar Mahapatra, Thane
‘I stay in constant touch with all my clients to give them confidence about their MF investments’
One of the best ways to establish trust among clients is to be with them always. I stay in constant touch with all my clients through phone calls and video conferences and this has played a key role in managing their behavior especially during tough times. In these interactions, I talk to them about their financial goals and update them about their investment portfolios.
In addition, I also make them comfortable by showing my own investments in mutual funds.
Twitter winner: Viren Dobariya, VKDwealth
‘Set right expectation and address their concerns to establish trust’
Before onboarding a client, I educate him about equity and debt markets, set the right expectation in terms of returns and disclose risk associated with mutual funds. I strongly believe that transparency is the key to building trust.
However, many clients panic after witnessing a sharp correction. Hence, we created a FAQs to address their common queries and concerns related to their investments. We included questions such as:
‘I don't have any emergency fund. I had done my 100% investment in equity that is approx. 30% down today, what should I do now? and
‘I have parked my total investment in debt, shall I move to equity fund?’
We shared the FAQs with all our clients through WhatsApp and email in the first week of April to address their concerns related to mutual funds.
