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At the recent Cafemutual Ideas Fest 2025, Pune MFD Dhananjay Kale of Dhanashree Wealth won the prestigious Sanjeevani Award under the ‘Quality’ category for helping many clients secure post retirement life.
Rohit Mattoo, Head of Retail Sales at Axis Mutual Fund, and Prem Khatri, Founder & CEO of Cafemutual felicitated Dhananjay. The Sanjeevani Awards honour MFDs/RIAs who have made a significant impact in the lives of their clients.
Dhananjay has been in the distribution business since 1995. Currently, he has over 4000 clients and manages AUM of over Rs. 1000 crore in mutual funds.
Cafemutual spoke to Dhananjay to understand how he helps his clients secure post retirement days.
Not just financial assets, take a comprehensive view of all holdings
Dhananjay believes that the first and most important step in helping clients retire is understanding their complete financial situation. He says that MFDs should look closely at all aspects of a client’s wealth including fixed deposits, gold, real estate and outstanding debt. This helps MFDs plan the post retirement life clients more efficiently.
Educate clients on the changing reality of retirement
Retirement planning is changing. "When I started, people planned till 60-65. Now, many live well beyond 85-90 and a few research studies suggests future generations might live up to 100-120 years. Longevity means clients must save more to take care of post retirement expenses. MFDs should educate clients about this reality with exact numbers to encourage them to plan well.”
He also sees many people getting carried away by the excitement of financial growth and shares Marcellus, CEO and Founder, Saurabh Mukherjea’s views on the middle class. "For the first time, people are experiencing a global boom and they are rushing to buy things they don’t really need—fancy cars, the latest gadgets, expensive vacations."
While enjoying life is important, MFDs must step in and remind clients to balance their spending, feels Dhananjay.
Help clients get debt-free before retirement
Dhananjay focuses on setting his clients near retirement debt free. "If you have borrowed and you are near retirement, it is going to hamper you in the long run especially in post-retirement days. Hence, clients should pay off all loans, as soon as possible. Instead of continuing to pay EMIs, they can convert those amounts into SIPs to build a stable financial future,” he adds.
Choose the Right Investments for Retirement
For investment strategies, he recommends a mix of hybrid and equity funds. He suggests using hybrid funds for near-term expenses as they are more tax-efficient and stable. For long-term needs, equity investments can help generate better returns.
Dhananjay warns MFDs against blindly following market trends. He also suggests the use of SWPs as a disciplined way of withdrawing funds for investors post retirement.
