The recipient of Money
Today FPCIL best financial advisor award (runner up), Sujata Kabraji is a respected
personality in the advisor community. She has built a compact client base of
select clients to whom she offers customised services.
Sujata Kabraji has neither a business card nor a website. She doesn’t believe in actively scouting for clients.
Ever since she donned the hat of an adviser in 2006, all her clients have come through references. Her first clients were her parents and people who knew her from her stock broking days.Word of mouth has been her only source of business.
Her mantra is not to gather assets but to wake up every morning and feel good about how her day is spent. For this, she believes in choosing her investors carefully. Before she takes on the client, she assesses whether her expertise can indeed add value. If not, she would rather not take on their work. To ensure that there is a match, both of working styles and expectations, she has sometimes taken upto a month to fully understand her prospective clients before on-boarding them. Since it is likely to be a long term relationship, she believes it is important for both sides to feel comfortable with each other.
Sujata has an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and a certificate in counseling and transactional analysis from the UK under her belt. Her exposure to counseling helps her understand the psyche of her clients better. From the business point of view, she finds it ironic that despite her MBA background, her business plan was scrawled on the back of an old envelope. Seven years later, that envelope is a reminder that that keeping things simple really works!
Over the years she has found that a large number of investors get intimidated by numbers and jargon.“I make it a point not to talk numbers with my investors till I can sense they are ready” says Sujata.
Sujata started her career as an assistant manager with the Times Group and entered the stock markets in 1992. Sujata recalls how the trading ring, for that matter the entire Indian financial world was a male bastion. “I entered the market when Harshad Mehta was ruling the roost. Deena Mehta and Nanda Singh were the only women traders in the ring and they had to wear sneakers to protect their toes. It was a real roller coaster ride!”
In her previous avatar as a director in a stock broking firm, Sujata found that broking businesses were driven very strongly by their bottom lines and customers’ needs were secondary. The need to get closer to investors needs in an unbiased way sowed the seeds in her mind to start her own wealth advisory practice. “I was having a chat with someone about it. He was pretty vociferous and scathing about my theory, calling me a dreamer and an idealist. Maybe I was. But there was no way of finding out without testing my beliefs. I have to say, am pretty glad I did! ” recalls Sujata.
Her work has paid off. She recently won the Money Today FPCIL runner up award in the Independent Financial Planner category. Sujata’s practice is very individualized and personal. She caters to families settled in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia and has a two-member help team which looks after the administrativeand back office work.
Sujata loves writing and is regular contributorin newspapers and magazines, often on women’s issues. She is currently associated with DSP Black Rock’s Winvestor campaign. Sujata was closely involved with Aditi Kothari in this initiative, which recognizes that women’s financial issues need to be addressed differently.
Sujata Kabraji is a shining example of how advisers can succeed in their profession if they know they are working towards their client’s interests.