Not only is Suresh Kakani the
first mutual fund distributor of Indore, he has played a key role in making
mutual funds popular in his state.
Indore
based Suresh Kakani started his career as an insurance agent in 1985. While
pursuing MSc in Physics from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, he met a development
officer of LIC who advised him to become an insurance agent. Keen to earn his own
pocket money, Suresh took it up enthusiastically.
A year later, he met a Chief Representative Officer of UTI Mutual Fund who explained to him the concept of mutual funds. He became fascinated with the idea of mutual fund distribution and decided to take the plunge, becoming a distributor of UTI Mutual Fund in 1986. In fact, he used to travel all the way to Mumbai to learn more about mutual funds from senior UTI officials.
His first client was a college friend who invested Rs. 500 in an equity fund.
Initially, Suresh found it very difficult to sell mutual funds as there was poor awareness of mutual funds among people. This was not the start he was expecting. He recalls, “Only 10% of the investors whom I met came on board. A majority of clients didn’t respond due to negative feedback about mutual funds from their CAs.” His distribution business did not do well during the initial six years.
Sharing his worst experience, Suresh says, “Some of my acquaintances used to avoid me because they thought that I would sell them a mutual fund scheme.”
Suresh didn’t give up. He started educating people by organizing awareness camps in Indore and adjoining districts. Also, to increase his visibility, he started a help desk for people who were victims of mis-selling and were in a financial mess. This helped him earn credibility among prospects.
Interestingly, the 1992 Harshad Mehta scam helped him spread the word about the equity market. “A lot of people were curious and would want to know more about the scam. Ironically, many of these people developed a keen interest in equity market after listening to the scam details,” he confides.
Very soon, he built a good reputation and developed a decent client base.
In 1993, he attended a training program of Kothari Pioneer Mutual Fund. He was impressed with the ideas they shared on growing advisory business. He recalls, “The advent of private fund houses like Kothari Pioneer brought a revolution in the mutual fund industry. It created transparency and increased competition among the MF players. The concept of daily NAV and one page product descriptors were first introduced by Kothari Pioneer. It helped distributors as well as investors understand the product better. People started asking for mutual funds,” Suresh adds.
Enthused by the fresh ideas, Suresh decided to grow his business by focusing on salaried employees. He started organizing awareness campaign at corporate houses. Also, he started a branch office in Mhow, then predominantly an army town, to cater to army personnel.
Eventually all his hard work paid off. Now, Suresh has a three member team with a strong client base of 900. He has assets under advisory of Rs. 150 crore in mutual funds. In future, Suresh aims to expand his business to other districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Though satisfied with the tremendous growth in his business, Suresh works today with a missionary zeal to spread investor education. In this mission, Suresh has empowered almost all the Indore IFAs through training programs. Also, he has conducted training programs for youth who want to build his/her career in mutual fund distribution in the adjoining districts. Sharing his experience, he says, “The penetration of mutual funds is very low compared to direct equity and life insurance in Madhya Pradesh. Though people of Indore and Bhopal have a huge investible corpus, they usually end up buying assets like real estate, gold and life insurance policies. Mutual fund is a great product. It helps people achieve their financial goals. Hence, I want to promote mutual funds as a product for wealth creation to achieve long term goals. I cannot do this alone. I need a team of enthused distributors for this purpose. That is why I am training people who want to become distributors.”
Suresh is the person behind establishment of Insurance & Investment Advisor Association (IIAAA). IIAAA was registered in 2000. The idea behind forming this group was to provide a platform for all advisors in Indore to discuss and solve the problems faced by advisors & investors and improve their skills. The members meet on first Friday of every month to discuss the trends and developments in the financial sector.
Mutual
funds have not just given Suresh a livelihood but also a calling that he has
dedicated himself to.