Tell us about your journey in the MF distribution business.
Before mutual fund distribution, I was working for a leading corporate house. This experience helped me understand pain points and needs of corporate employees. While corporate employees earn better, they usually get into debt trap due to impulsive spending decisions. However, we can address these issues with the help of investment planning. And sensing an opportunity in this space, I entered into MF distribution space.
Many investors rely on their distributors and advisors for investments. Hence, we believe our key role is following a client centric approach by recommending products where we have a conviction and focussing on offering solutions.
Over time, we have helped many clients attain financial freedom and got their support to get referrals. We have been getting a lot of referrals from existing clients. In fact, we have acquired a couple of NRI clients through referrals.
In the financial distribution industry, we need to have a long term vision to grow business. Also, we need to have a clear vision to keep ourselves motivated especially during difficult times.
How did MFU help you transform your business especially during pandemic times?
We could not have grown the way we grew in this tough time without the support of MFU. Despite lockdown restrictions, we received new inflows and our AUM grew multiple times. Even during the current times when many investors have been redeeming money, we have been getting new inflows.
Also, we did not face any problem shifting to work from home model due to MFU. I can say the MFU team is accessible 24*7 for MFDs. Even if you call them at 10 pm, they will be happy to help you and their energy level is very high.
What makes MFU a better platform?
We started using MFU since 2014 when no other such platforms were there. MFU has made our life simpler by easing on boarding process and facilitating transaction across fund houses. Also, MFU gives us confidence that operational issues of our clients will be quickly resolved. In fact, we have seen MFU team burning mid night oil to resolve operational issues. In a way, MFU is like our extended office.
MFU has helped us save a lot of time. We can now focus on bringing more business and connecting with existing clients.
What is one major achievement that you would like to highlight?
MFU offers Payezz (Mandate registration) through which your clients can modify SIPs in a fraction of a second. This facility has increased ease of doing business.
This year we did Rs.80 lakh fresh SIPs through MFU. In 2019 and 2020, we did SIP drives through which we booked 571 and 1000+ SIPs in a single day, respectively. We are confident that we will reach SIP book of Rs.2 crore per month by December 21.
Any important suggestion to MFDs who are yet to move their business online to platforms like MFU?
Change is the only constant. Remember what happened to Kodak and Nokia. Despite manufacturing wonderful products, they are no longer existed because they did not adapt to changes. Digitalization is the future of MFD business and MFU has been there to support us.
