Listen to this article
As part of Franklin Templeton's Invest for Progress Campaign, here are stories of 3 women mutual fund distributors from south India who have made a mark in the Mutual Funds industry.
Let us look at their inspiring journey:
Bhooma V: Coimbatore – Fiducial Financial Services – The New Era Chanakya
Bhooma started her career as a teaching assistant. However, she did not find her job exciting. That’s when her husband who is an insurance consultant asked her to join him to manage people’s money and help them achieve financial goals.
Her husband gave her training and confidence to float her own distribution company, Fiducial Financial Services, in 2009.
Sitting out of Coimbatore, Bhooma now manages assets of Rs.125 crore from over 600 clients. She attributes her success to leveraging technology and engaging with clients during difficult times.
From the beginning, Bhooma has invested in technology. In fact, she launched her own app ‘Savings Chanakya’ in 2019. The app offers customized investment solutions with the help of artificial intelligence (Robo advisory). All her clients can transact and monitor their investments at the click of a button. Her app also enables her existing clients to give referrals.
Bhooma periodically engages with her clients through her newsletters. She educates her clients and prospective investors by taking them through concepts of investor psychology and their behavioral aspects that can impact financial decisions. She usually sends these newsletters during volatile market sentiments to give confidence to her clients. She says, “While we regularly engage with clients through one-to-one meetings, we reach out to them through newsletters during difficult times. Many people take irrational decision when they see volatility in their investment portfolio. Hence, it is job of a mutual funds distributor to help clients deal with their own behavioral biases.”
Bhooma believes in empowering women and has been helping a few women to become mutual fund distributors by offering them training support.
Here are a few takeaways from Bhooma’s journey:
- Leverage technology to simplify investments for clients
- Proactively reach your clients during difficult market times
Rowthri S – Coimbatore: RP Investment Services – Tailor-made solutions
Rowthri, a BSc Mathematics graduate and a CFP, began her career as a tele caller in Cholamandalam Wealth Distribution. She was promoted to a sales manager. Later, she worked as a Relationaship Managaer at Kotak Bank.
In 2016, Rowthri floated RP Investment Services along with her friend. 10 of her clients moved their assets to support Rowthri. She approached large corporates and doctors through a local directory. On these calls, she spoke to them about solutions like cash flow management through liquid funds to corporates and professional indemnity policies to doctors; before seeking a meeting with them.
Also, Rowthri approached a few HNIs through referrals from her previous clients and recommended them to shift their money from bank FDs to debt funds to generate better inflation adjusted and tax efficient returns.
Since she caters to a lot of ultra HNIs, Rowthri also offers services like advanced tax filing and will writing to engage with them better. She conducts investor meets regularly to make them aware of market trends.
Rowthri now manages an AUM of Rs.150 crore in mutual funds from over 250 clients.
Some key lessons from Rowthri’s successful journey:
- Approach clients with solutions that matters to them
- Offer services like will writing to strengthen your relationship with clients
Shiney Sebastian – Cochin: Affluenz Financial services – Debt Set Go
After working in PMS, banking, mutual funds and brokerage companies for 13 years, Shiney Sebastian started her firm, Affluenz, in 2007.
Shiney leads an all-women team to manage wealth for institutions, trusts and ultra HNI families. She believes that institutions and the wealthy area already aware about different financial products and hence, dealing with them saves a lot of time and energy for distributors. She utilizes her time in evaluating fund performances and doing research on opportunities in markets.
Shiney on-boards all her prospects through debt funds - liquid or ultra-short term funds. She believes that transitioning from FDs to debt funds is easier than transitioning from FDs to equity funds.
Even if her client has a risk appetite for equity funds, she recommends them to start with debt funds so that they keep their returns expectation moderate right from the beginning. Once they get comfortable with Mutual Funds and have a better understanding of the risk-reward trade off, she introduces them to hybrid and equity funds.
Shiney is passionate about women empowerment. In fact, she ensures that her male clients bring their partners at every meet to make them financially aware. She feels women should be aware of the bank accounts, passwords, ATM pins, insurance policies of their spouse which can in handy in emergency situations.
Today, Shiney manages an AUM of Rs.275 crore in mutual funds from over 400 clients.
Lessons from Shiney’s story:
- FD investors are comfortable investing in debt funds compared to equity funds
- Involve women in client meet to make them financially aware
