iFast Financial India Pvt. Ltd, a platform provider for independent advisers and mutual fund (MF) distributors, has launched a marketplace for independent financial advisers (IFAs). This initiative seeks to facilitate merger and acquisition of IFA-run businesses, but goes further.
The company’s managing director, Rajesh Krishnamoorthy, says that personal experiences with IFAs being unable to continue their business concern due to untimely death or serious health-related disability led to the idea of such a platform.
IFAs are individual professionals who advise clients on financial planning and give investment recommendations, hence, business continuity and succession planning assumes critical importance.
Typically, there may be some support staff but the brain in the service is the adviser herself. What happens to a client being advised, say, for the last 5 years, if there is an unfortunate car accident in which the adviser loses her life; who will now take over the client’s financial matters?
