In a bid to retain its leadership, Reliance is ready with a slew of initiatives, find Ravi Samalad and Jayshree Pyasi after speaking to Himanshu Vyapak, Executive Vice President, Reliance Mutual Fund
How has been the response to FAST?
The advisors who are using it are appreciating it. The industry average ticket size of an SIP is Rs 2,000. In FAST, every SIP is linked to a goal which is usually long term. So our ticket size is higher at Rs 3,200. The industry average tenure of a SIP is 5 years whereas our SIPs have tenure of 10 years. Nearly 50 percent of the SIPs have a ten year horizon and the rest are perpetual.
FAST bring dual benefits to us. Firstly client’s goals are taken care of and longer tenured SIPs and higher ticket size gets reflected in our business.
To bring in a behavioral change among the advisors, we are imparting one-on-one training with the help of our EDGE Academy. We have initiated a high level training engagement with our partners.
The FAST promotion is largely below the line. The response has been encouraging as nearly 7,000 plans have already been written using FAST.
You also assist your advisors in getting CFP. How many advisors has Reliance helped in getting CFP certification so far?
We have a tie up with FPSB as a part of our ongoing education drive for advisors. If any partner clears CFP, we reimburse the cost. Approximately 50 advisors have cleared the examination so far.
What other initiatives are being taken for advisors?
Technology will play a very important role in reducing the cost and increasing the revenues of advisors. To address this, we are working on an online platform called ‘Invest Easy’ which will allow advisors and investors to invest in a seamless manner. Clients will have full log in access to it.
Advisors can convert their offline investments into online mode. Advisors will have to sign a form with their ARN and register their clients. It will be available on our website and it is free of cost. An advisor can recommend a scheme and the investor can execute the trade on his own through his mobile phone, call centre or our website.
Investors would not need to fill up any form. If clients execute a trade, the advisor will get intimation about this transaction. We capture the advisor details in the form itself and he/she becomes a default advisor for all future transactions initiated by clients. This version is for individual investors.
We have recently launched another version for non-individual investors who mainly invest in operation intensive products like ultra short term funds and liquid funds. Here, companies can choose their advisor. This tool brings a lot of operational ease for companies.
You recently increased the number of schemes under SIP Insure. What other changes have you made under this scheme?
We have received some feedback from investors that the age at which they can enter the scheme needs to be relaxed. So far, investors between the age group of 20 years to 45 years were eligible. Now we have slightly reduced the minimum age to 18. Also, earlier the SIPs would cease when an investor attained 55 years of age. Investors now want to continue their SIPs even after this age.
Another advantage the scheme provides is that we fund the unpaid SIP installments if something anything untoward were to happen to the investor. For instance, if an investor has committed to 10 year SIP and has paid installments for one year and he or she dies, the installments for the remaining 9 years will be paid by us.
Does this make business sense for Reliance MF?
Yes, we are bearing the cost and that’s what makes it exceptionally attractive for investors because they get an insurance of Rs 10 lakh.
It’s a unique proposition and it makes a lot of sense for investors. We are planning to start a campaign to promote it very soon. Around 1.8 lakh investors have subscribed to SIP Insure.
