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  • Success Stories What made them quit their profession to become IFAs

    What made them quit their profession to become IFAs

    We profiled Dr. Kamal Goel (ex-army doctor) and Yogesh Sharma (former IT consultant) to find out what prompted them to switch their professions.
    Banali Banerjee Sep 17, 2016

    Dr. Kamal K Goel, Unique Health & Wealth Consultants

    During his 25 years stint in the army, Dr. Kamal Goel came across many families who were ill-prepared to deal with medical contingencies. “I came across many families who had no investments and they exhausted their savings to get medical treatment. I wanted to help them and thought what better way than to advice people on financial matters,” says Goel.  

    While Goel is a doctor, he has always had a knack for finance. During his army days, he used to help his friends and colleagues with filing tax returns and also used to offer investment advice.

    To help army families build a secure future, he quit army in 1997 and devoted himself to mastering financial planning and mutual funds. Later he donned the hat of an adviser in 2000. To hone his skills, he completed his CFP in 2006.

    Since he also practices as a doctor, he caters to a limited set of clients who are largely army families. Interestingly, he prepares financial plans only; he doesn’t provide execution service. Today, he has around 50 clients who pay him a fee.

    Yogesh Sharma, Y S Capital

    A computer systems engineer from Arizona State University, USA, becoming an adviser was not a planned move for Yogesh. After completing his engineering, Yogesh started YS Computers in Mumbai in 1994 which offered IT consultancy. His firm specialised in offering consultancy services to companies for setting up their entire IT infrastructure. However, he discovered that his company was treated more as a hardware supply firm. Not many Indian companies, except some MNCs, were willing to pay a fee for his services, as it was entirely a new concept back then.

    Concerned about this, Yogesh turned to Deepak Parekh of HDFC for advice. Deepak wanted to know about the value that Yogesh added to his business. Yogesh said that it was “service”. Deepak told him that financial services would be the next big thing in India. Heeding his advice, Yogesh enrolled with IRDA in 2001 and later with AMFI in 2004.  “I felt that the financial distribution services sector was not as popular or recognized as information technology. Financial awareness was very low among investors.  This was very much missing in the financial distribution space those days,” recalls Yogesh.

    When asked what interests him the most in his new role, Yogesh says, “It is a different level of satisfaction to help people achieve their financial goals.”

    Today, Yogesh caters to 300 clients who are largely HNIs, ultra HNIs and SMEs. Some of the country’s most eminent lawyers, doctors, Bollywood celebrities and even top officials of wealth management firms are his clients. “Our focus is on the corporate and HNI segment. We don’t have any retail or walk-in clients,” says Yogesh.

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