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Tell us your journey to becoming an MFD.
Financial services were something I always wanted to do. I wanted to help people create wealth, build assets over time, and basically set up an investment firm. At that time, financial planning was a beautiful and new concept in India.
We started doing financial planning and many people liked the idea of saving for the long term, creating wealth, setting goals, and making projections.
ETFs does not offer any commission. Why do you sell ETFs then?
These days, many people want to park their money in gold, silver, or even cash. And if they have a Demat account, we suggest doing it through ETFs.
Now, if it’s done through our sub-broking license, then yes, we earn a small brokerage. But otherwise, many people prefer doing it themselves because it’s cheaper and easier. It’s more cost-effective. They buy and hold for a long time.
While we don’t earn anything in ETFs but if something is good for investors, it is good for MFDs in the long run.
Do you see a future where you actively deal in passives?
As a sub-broker, yes. People ask us about these products, and we recommend them sometimes. They either place the order themselves via apps or ask us to do it. That happens through our broking platform, not as a mutual fund distributor.
For the investor, it’s already a win. They get a low-cost, smart product that can perform as well or sometimes better than actively managed funds.
Passive funds make up 17% of India’s mutual fund AUM. In the U.S, it’s 58%. Do you think we’ll follow that trend?
Yes, 100%. Indian investors will adopt passives very fast — much faster than in the U.S.
This is the future of investing: smart, low-cost, efficient, simple. As more people come into the investment journey, especially the younger crowd, we’ll see a boom in these products.
With so many smart beta funds now, do you think it makes passives complicated?
Absolutely, yes. It muddies the water. Passive used to mean simple and transparent. Now, with so many options, people will have to learn and understand them.
But it’s not impossible. It’s like upgrading your car — from manual to automatic to something even more advanced. You’ll learn along the way.
People will start with Nifty 100, gold ETF, then try pharma, infra, among others. They’ll gradually understand smart beta variations. It’s not a very high learning curve.
Any message to MFDs?
Yes. Just keep doing what you’ve always done — ethically and proudly. The market will evolve. Something new will come — maybe through regulation, product innovation, or market cycles.
This profession — guiding people on money — will always exist. It’s not taught in schools, colleges, or anywhere else. So, there will always be a need for someone to guide people on managing money.
