With the theme ‘Together towards 2020’, the two-day IFA Galaxy event called Knowledge Summit kicked off on October 10 in Mahabalipuram, Chennai. Over 450 financial advisers, mostly from South India attended the conference while over 3,000 delegates watched the live webcast across the country.
In his inaugural speech, A Balasubramanian, CEO, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund shared his vision about the growth of the mutual fund industry for the next five years. He believes that the pension money (coming from EPFO, NPS) will have a beneficial impact on the mutual fund industry.
In his keynote address, Prashant Jain, ED & CIO, HDFC MF, shared his views on markets. He said that Indian equity market has the potential to deliver attractive returns for the next 40 years at least. He expressed his concern over the declining retail participation in debt funds and urged financial advisers to promote debt funds among investors.
While giving a presentation on ‘How to build Brand IFA’, Sunil Subramaniam, CEO, Sundaram Mutual Fund advised IFAs to leverage social media and technology to position themselves effectively. He shared the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and explained how an individual can become an enduring brand.
Meanwhile, Aashish Somaiyaa, MD and CEO, Motilal Oswal gave an interesting presentation on building a robust business model. He said that IFAs cannot scale up their business without investing in technology and knowledge. He advised them to simplify their business by tying up with platforms which would give them strong back-office support and thereby free them from many routine chores; this saved time could be utilized more optimally to garner more business.
Striking an optimistic note on the future of distribution business, Himanshu Vyapak, Deputy CEO, Reliance MF claims that the share of IFAs in SIP pie would grow from 46% to 51% in the next five years. He believes that the overall commission of distributors would grow to Rs.21,000 crore during the same period.
Other interesting presentations were made by bashish Mohanty, Head - Reail and Investor Service Management, UTI MF, V Ganesh, CEO, Karvy and Dhawal Dalal, EVP & Head – Fixed Income, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers.
Also, some prominent IFAs like DV Suresh, Sunil Bhagat, D Muthukrishnan, SB Shanmugam Rama Pereiannan, Srikant Kulkarni and K Mohideen Malik shared their success stories.
A K Narayan, President, IFA Galaxy and other members including V K Sudharsan, Anita Bhat, Ramesh Bhat had ensured that the event became an ideal platform for financial planners to learn, network and bond.
