Mumbai: Chennai based IFA Galaxy held its annual knowledge summit in Chennai today which saw a gathering of advisors and top industry officials.
Follow the MAD Mantra
Jaideep Bhattacharya, UTI MF termed IFAs as MAD (make a difference) people. What he meant was that IFAs have the potential to get large parts of Indian population to participate in the growth of Indian economy through mutual funds, thereby making a difference in their lives. He emphasized on the need to bring changes in technology, service and distribution. He said that IFAs need to build their brand among investors. In order to bring long term equity assets in the industry he felt that the future was in goal based products. He predicted that IFAs would become ‘one stop shop’ for all investment needs.
Agents vs. Advisors
Sunil Subramaniam of Sundaram Mutual Fund urged IFAs to become advisors as well as agents. He drew his points across through a book “Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” authored by C.K Prahalad. He encouraged IFAs to tap the vast untapped potential by targeting those at the bottom of the pyramid by offering them miniature products (SIPs). He asked them to approach them with capital protection funds, the immediate competitors to bank deposits for wealth preservation. He asked IFAs to recommend more perpetual SIPs so that both the client and the advisor benefit.
‘Add value’
Rajesh Krishnamoorthy, MD, Ifast spoke on "essentials to gain from the limitless opportunity". He highlighted the changing dynamics of services offered by IFAs. He spoke on the emergence of commoditization of services. He said giving door step service to customers was a service at some point in time but it is not a value add any more. “The serious players should look at adding value and stop discounting,” he said.
The event ended by a group discussion by eminent advisors on "Expectation of Investor from an Advisor?” The event was not all about just mutual funds. To lighten up the atmosphere, a standup comedy act in a blend of Tamil, English and Hindi by T M Karthik about Indians fascination with US travel lifted the mood among IFAs and industry officials after the lunch.
H N Sinor, CEO, AMFI was the chief guest at the function. Ashutosh Bishnoi, CEO, L&T Mutual Fund, Sadique Neelgund, Founder, Network FP, Sethuram Iyer, CIO, Daiwa MF, Huzaifa Husian, Fund Manager AIG MF, Kanak Jain of MFRT, Robin Roy, Associate Director PWC, and Navin Tewari, Head-Sales & Marketing Birla Sun Life AMC had also addressed the gathering.
