10% of her clients have
set aside 1% of their annual investments towards building a charitable corpus
which is utilized to help others.
Jalpa Broker lost her father when she was just 15. She has been shouldering her family’s responsibility since then. Having sailed through her professional life successfully, she is proud of her achievements.
Determined to be a thorough professional, she has worked hard to acquire professional qualifications. Jalpa is a B.Com graduate. She has pursued a diploma in export import management, has a GNIIT certificate under her belt and has done her articleship as a part of her CA. She is also a Registered Financial Consultant (RFC).
Starting with a part time job, Jalpa started offering tax consulting services but soon realized that she had to expand her professional strength beyond just tax planning. She then enrolled for CFP. “Advising on tax was not making any difference in a client’s life,” recalls Jalpa.
In 2003, Jalpa started offering insurance services and dabbled in mutual funds in 2003. Today, she manages Rs 30 crore in mutual funds. Jalpa started focusing on offering complete financial planning services in 2007. In order to understand practical aspects of implementing a financial plan, Jalpa designed a financial plan for herself. Today, she has 150 families, most of them women clients who have enrolled for a complete financial planning package.
In an industry where most advisors constantly think of expanding their client base, Jalpa is not in the race to grow her assets under advisory. She is happy with the seven to eight referrals clients she gets every year.
Jalpa is a staunch believer of giving back to society and actively urges her clients to opt for a charity plan in their financial plan. She advices her clients to set aside at least 1% of their annual investments to build a charitable corpus.
She parks this money in a debt fund through SIPs. So far 10% of her clients have enrolled for this noble cause. “They are not HNIs. Their income bracket is in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per annum. So charity is not necessarily a prerogative of the rich and famous. This plan is a part of clients overall financial plan.”
Jalpa says that clients can give this money to their friends, family members or neighbors who might be facing a severe financial crisis.
The concept of charitable financial planning is popular in international markets. Jalpa is one of the few financial advisors to adopt this in India. “They don’t have to do charity right away. A corpus is created over the years and then clients can decide how to utilize this corpus. Our immediate family members, cousins or extended family members may encounter a medical emergency and they may not be equipped to handle the exorbitant treatment costs,” says Jalpa.
According to her charity is not just about giving just monetary help to needy. “One can offer their clothes, books or any other stuff which might be of help to others. Charity or giving as a habit should be inculcated right from the childhood,” believes Jalpa.
She engages her clients for doing social activities. “Some of my clients are doctors. So a group of say three to four doctors go to a village and provide free health checkup once in a year. We offer chocolates, biscuits and fruits to street children. Just because they are poor it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a right to taste good food. At old age home the senior citizens don’t require money. They need your time. As of now we are doing these activities on a small scale as most of my clients are in the accumulation phase. As the charitable assets grow we plan to take it to a larger scale,” shares Jalpa.
The idea of engaging her clients for charity struck her when she used to advice people on tax. “The taxation system is designed to bridge the gap between poor and rich. The rich compensates for poor. But that’s not happening. That’s when the concept of charity struck me,” says Jalpa.
Jalpa says that lack of trust on whether the money is actually reaching the needy deters people from doing charity. She aims to convince more of her clients into charity planning.
Jalpa also tells her clients to allocate some corpus for charity in their will. Jalpa is also building a charity corpus by investing a small amount of her earnings. She will give away a portion of her life insurance proceeds towards charity, which she has mentioned in her will.
Jalpa has a three member team operating from a compact office in Vile Parle. She also does financial planning for her staff.
Jalpa has not created a charitable trust yet because it comes with its own expenses and legal formalities. In the next five years, she aims to set aside at least 10% of her assets under advisory towards charity.