A lot of action is happening on the SIP front as the industry collects over Rs.4000 crore month on month. You ran a successful SIP campaign under “SIP is like a Good EMI” and now you have launched “Freedom SIP”. How do they complement each other?
Over the two-decade history of Franklin Templeton in India, we have many firsts to our credit, key among them being the introduction of the concept of systematic investing through SIPs. To simplify this concept for the common man, it was important to link SIPs to something that is financially popular and that’s how our campaign ‘SIP is like a good EMI – an investment not an installment’ was born. It is also important to note that the industry too has spoken in one voice as far as SIPs are concerned and the results are before us in terms of a throughput of more than 1.25 crore running SIPs today.
Freedom SIP is the next level of the good EMI, which I would call the SIP 2.0 version wherein we are offering investors the flexibility to tailor the good EMI to suit their needs and meet their goals. It also falls under our ‘First Serve’ bouquet of initiatives launched to help our distributor community provide enhanced services to their investors.
Can you elaborate on the features available under Freedom SIP and how it helps to customize the good EMI?
The key features launched under freedom SIP as below. These features are available both offline and online as well as through multiple channels and across payment options like debit card, NEFT/ RTGS, NACH, e-mandate, bill pay, etc. The e-mandate for instance is one of the newer features, which allows access to all these flexibilities with no paper work.
Perpetual SIP – Since SIPs are aimed at helping investors meet their goals, it is important that they continue their SIPs till their goals are achieved in an uninterrupted manner. Perpetual SIPs allow investors to do this without the operational hassles of SIP renewals.
Step up SIP – Investments typically rise with incomes. Step-up SIP can help your investors plan this incremental investment in advance through a single instruction.
Flexi-SIP – Through this facility, one can change a SIP amount for a particular month or quarter.
Pause SIP – This helps to pause a SIP investment in times of any personal exigency.
SIP amount change – Here one can increase or decrease their SIP amount with a single instruction across the SIP tenure.
Any date SIP – Now you can start your SIP on any date of a month as compared to the 5 fixed dates available earlier.
Click here for our Freedom SIP addendum which provides more details on each feature.
What were the triggers to launch Freedom SIP?
Our aim under ‘First Serve’ is to enhance our distributor engagement and add to their conveniences. Freedom SIP fits this objective. It is also the culmination of our detailed research across stakeholders on what needs to be done to enhance the longevity of SIPs and reduce the risk of cancellation.
Click here for our Freedom SIP Brochure.
While Freedom SIP is great for investors, how does it benefit distributors?
The biggest benefit to distributors is the increase in investor stickiness, as these flexibilities will help investors continue with their SIPs under various circumstances. Features like Perpetual and Step-up SIP will help to improve SIP throughput year-on-year and add to the distributor’s annuity while Pause, Flexi-SIP, Amount change feature will ensure continuity of SIPs and reduce the risk of SIP cancellation.
Secondly, distributors are increasingly conscious about the time they spent on operations and prefer to spend this time on investor engagement. These features will not only add more flexibility, they will also reduce the paper work and build efficiencies.
Let me cite an example. For instance, through Freedom SIP, you can technically combine a lumpsum with an SIP. Say your investor receives an ex-gratia amount which you want to deploy in equity funds in a staggered manner. Through Freedom SIP, you can increase the SIP amount for the relevant period and then restore the original SIP amount once the ex-gratia amount is deployed. In the earlier avatar, you did not have this flexibility.
Please watch this film on Freedom SIP which would help you understand the benefits more explicitly.
What next on First Serve?
We are working on many more conveniences for distributors under First Serve, next being the launch of our new digital platform. We are revamping our website to deliver a state-of-the-art digital experience to both our distributors and investors. I will come back with a detailed update on this soon. So keep watching this space.
