IFAs across the country gathered in Pune for the three-day annual Mutual Fund Round Table Conference (MFRT) organized by Kolkata’s Ask Circle group. Over 600 financial advisers attended the event themed ‘Enhancing Attitude Skill and Knowledge.’
Day one saw industry stalwarts share their wisdom and give motivational tips on vision 2020.
Santosh Nair, CKO SMMART Consultants presented points for an ideal 2020 Advisor. A list of AMC stalwarts- Sundeep Sikka, AMFI Chairman and CEO Reliance MF, Nimesh Shah, CEO, ICICI Prudential AMC, Chandresh Nigam, CEO, Axis MF and Leo Puri, MD, UTI MF gave their thoughts on what if they were an IFA.
Nimesh Shah, in his presentation to IFAs explained the need for more IFAs in the industry. He said the AMC officials are now leaving their jobs and becoming an IFA. For someone who possess skills of an entrepreneur, the decision to become an IFA is the best, he added.
Day two was an agenda packed full of sessions running parallel throughout the day. It started with a panel discussion on women empowerment moderated by Uma Shashikant stressing on the need of more women IFAs in the industry. A four member panel of Priti Kucheria, Veena Malgaonkar, Taru Kajaria, and Vrinda Ambekar shared their experiences.
It was followed by a panel discussion on creating convenience for IFAs and consumers through digital technology. Karan Dutta, CBO, Axis MF, Abhijit Shah, Head Marketing, ICICI Pru MF, Debashish Mohanty, President, UTI MF and Himanshu Vyapak, Dy.CEO, Reliance MF, and Harish Rao as moderator were the part of the panel. Karan Datta said that IFAs should not worry about robo-advisors and encouraged them to adopt a new concept - ‘Research Online, Buy Offline (ROBO).
The most applauded debate at the event was on ‘Investment Strategy vs Business Strategy’. Ashish Somaiyaa, CEO, Motilal Oswal AMC, Shyamali Basu, VP Sales, HDFC AMC, Suchit Punnose, Founder, CEO of Red Ribbon AMC were debating for investment strategy. On the other hand, Sunil Subramaniam, CEO, Sundaram MF, Kailash Kulkarni, CEO, L&T MF, Ajit Menon, National Sales Head, DSP Blackrock MF and Kalpen Parekh, CEO IDFC MF were debating for business strategy. The conclusion was that both AMC and IFA contribution was necessary in order to satisfy investors in the long run. Kalpen Parekh said that ultimately it is the investors who are going to get benefitted and so both the strategies should be implemented accordingly.
Breakaway sessions included a panel discussion on Investor Awareness Programs moderated by Sadique Neelgund, Founder Network FP. The panel members were Saugata Chatterjee, Reliance MF, Gaurav Goyal, VP at ICICI Pru MF and Amit Basu of IDFC AMC. Other informative sessions were conducted by Suresh Sadagopan of Ladder7, Vinayak Sapre of IFA Insights, Ashish Goel, Vista Wealth, Ramesh Bhatt, Deepesh Mehta and many more. Manish Chauhan of Jagoinvestor.com spoke about pre-requisites for IFAs before going online.
A panel discussion on ‘Way Forward for IFA Business’ was conducted by Balakrishna Kini, AMFI, Dhruv Mehta, FIFA Chairman, Rajesh Chheda, IFA Goa, Gaurav Suri, UTI MF and Gajendra Kothari, IFA Mumbai.
S.Naren, CIO of ICICI Pru MF stressed on how to build a good investment strategy.
Another panel discussion was on emerging trends in the mutual fund industry. It included a diverse panel of a motivational speaker, a representative from real-estate sector and Kamala VP, Head-MF, NSE. The session was moderated by Amit Trivedi.
MFRT Samman Awards were presented to 11 extraordinary IFAs across the country who have created in the mutual fund industry by adding values to the clients through their services. The winners were selected on the basis of innovative approach in their marketing strategy to acquire clients.
Day three was completely dedicated to business networking sessions for IFAs. 15-20 members groups were formed from different cities where for the next one year they will be in contact and help each other in acquiring new clients.
The ASK Circle team led by Bhavik Udeshi, Bhavesh Shah, Rajesh Koradia, Kanak Jain, S K Bagaria and other members were widely praised for this initiative by the participating IFAs and sponsors.
The ASK Circle group was formed in June 2007 and held its first annual conference in 2009. Going by the enthusiasm, MFRT 2016 which is scheduled to be held in Jaipur has already got registrations of over 400 IFAs. MFRT 2016 is targeting more than 1000 participant IFAs.
Cafemutual was the online media partner for MFRT Summit 2015.
