Meet Mukesh Patel from Anand, Gujarat who is an engineer by qualification and advisor by choice.
Anand, Gujarat is known as the ‘milk’ capital of India is now the home base of Mukesh Patel, also known as the SIP king. “I only want to create value to my clients portfolio; and SIP is the best route to achieve it”, he says.
Background
Mukesh was born and brought up in Sojitra, a taluka in Gujarat. After completing his schooling, he moved to Bhavnagar in 1997 where he graduated as a mechanical and automobile engineer. Immediately after his graduation, he landed a job in Ahmedabad as a marketing executive for engineering products. In this job, he was exposed to real life marketing and sales situations. In 2000 he shifted to Anand to be near his family. Here, he got an opportunity to work as a craft instructor in a college.
Part time advisor
One of his friends who was an LIC agent, suggested him to set up an LIC agency. Mukesh was a little reluctant so initially, he free lanced and sold the policies. Getting a good response from the investors, he finally started an LIC agency in 2004. Gradually he started realizing that people have different financial needs. Everyone has different risk appetite and LIC could not fulfill it. He says, “There was a gap that I needed to fill in terms of investment needs. Life Insurance covers the life long term protection need but then what about the other goals?”
Mukesh started attending seminars, read magazines and gathered as much information as possible. He realized after a thorough research and evaluation of mutual funds that mutual funds were ideally suited to fill these gaps of wealth creation and goal attainment. To get a first-hand experience, he invested in a few also. During this course he completed the AMFI mutual fund exam. Impressed by the returns he forayed into mutual funds in 2008. He sensed a good opportunity the following year due to the market crash. “People lost their faith in markets; I took this as challenge and sensed an opportunity”, he says.
Investor awareness
He conducts IAPs for people from various backgrounds such as rickshaw drivers, agricultural laborers, businessmen, professors. Mukesh suggests his clients to invest through SIP route. “It is the best tool for the wealth creation”, he says. In order to spread the message in remote areas, Mukesh personally visits and educates them. “A majority of my clientele is from rural area. People are ready to park money in different avenues; it is just that a different approach is required”, he says. He has even come out with a few slogans like “SIP banao, Life Banao” in Gujarati so that people could relate to it. He even circulates handouts in the local newspapers every quarter where he writes about the importance of SIP and regular investing.
In 2010, when on holiday in U.K with family, his NRI relatives approached him for advice on their personal finance. In the subsequent years, he conducted IAPs abroad with a key message being that they need to follow SIP route.
In 2015, to give his hundred percent to the advisory profession and reach out to people, he resigned as lecturer. Now he conducts 3 IAPs in a month which are personally conducted by him. “Different clients have different needs. Goal based IAPs never go waste”, he says.
Mukesh aims to make his client wealthy. “I don’t ask for fees, I believe if my clients grow then eventually I will also grow”, he says. He has increased his AUM from 11 crore in 2013 to 59 crore in 2016. “IAPs are my biggest weapons. My client conversion rate is more than 75%”, he says. Currently he manages 650 clients out of which 100 are HNIs.
Future Plans
With his 4-member team, he plans to reach an SIP book of 1 crore by 2017. Further, he plans to expand his business to the cities of Baroda and Nadiad.
A self-motivated man, Mukesh takes no leave and claims that his determination of making each and every client wealthy is what has made him respected and popular in Anand.
