IFA Ravi Kumar resides at Haripur Padal, a small hilly village in Jammu and Kashmir, where people face constant trouble following India-Pakistan border tensions. His geographical location may be a challenge for Ravi Kumar, but he remains undaunted. With a never-say-die attitude, he seems to have taken a leaf out of Indian defence personnel book.
Most of his clients are from the army. Convincing them to subscribe to mutual funds was not easy because soldiers generally look for advisors in their hometowns. It was an uphill task to make clients of army personnel – sometimes literally so.
Getting permission to even enter a defence camp can be a challenge to begin with. To overcome this, Kumar looks for a common connection to seek an appointment with an army officer. He usually approaches local people such as vegetable vendors who supply to the camps and takes their help to set up an appointment.
Once he gets the appointment, Kumar does his homework before the meeting. Mostly, the conversation starts with post retirement talks as many army jawans retire early. He also talks about key financial goals of jawans such as marriage, supporting family, retirement and children’s education. Kumar believes that talking about such matters inspires confidence in clients and assures them that they are dealing with a person who understands their needs.
When his clients begin to feel comfortable and start sharing their financial details, only then Kumar talks about mutual funds and explains to them how investing through SIPs can help them achieve their financial goals.
Kumar believes that once an advisor converts an army official from a defence camp as a client, the process of convincing other soldiers becomes easier. They are more willing to trust the advisor.
Another piece of advice that Kumar gives to his army clients is to go for mutual funds, instead of repaying a home loan early in their career. For many soldiers, repaying a home loan was the priority. Hence, they did not have enough money by end of the month to invest in MFs. However, Kumar encourages them to start investing in mutual funds to accumulate wealth and repay loans after 10-15 years. As an immediate solution, Kumar asks them to extend the loan repayment duration to reduce the monthly EMI so that they can invest in mutual funds through SIPs.
Initial journey
Before he jumped into the financial advisory business in 2016, Kumar had around 10 years of experience working with insurance companies as a relationship manager. His previous employers included ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Kotak Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance and PNB Metlife Insurance.
Since mutual fund was a competitive product, he gained knowledge on MFs while working with insurance companies. Kumar realized that mutual funds are better aligned with investors’ financial goals compared to insurance policies. Also, mutual funds are transparent, liquid and offer superior risk adjusted return over the long term.
Seeing an opportunity in the product, he left his job and took up mutual fund distribution business.
Managing clients
Kumar sends market-related news updates on WhatsApp to his clients. In these messages, he also gives his take on the market and tries to calm frayed nerves of investors during volatile times in the market.
Kumar also meets with his clients regularly to review their investments and keep track of their key life events.
Road ahead
Within three years, Kumar has already acquired 1,100 clients. He manages assets worth Rs.15 crore and his SIP book is at Rs.28 lakh per month. Given the location that he operates in, these numbers are significant, if not staggering.
By the end of this financial year, Kumar has decided to increase the asset he manages to Rs.25 crore. He also intends to increase his client base to 2,000 and SIP book to Rs.50 lakh a month by the end of 2019.
Considering his current numbers, one can term his achievements in the world of financial advisory as baby steps. However, factor in the circumstances, and one cannot rule out that he has the will to make it big.
Key takeaways
- Establish common connection to approach army officials
- Begin conversation with topics having huge impact on their life such as early retirement, responsibility of parents and so on
- Encourage them to increase home loan tenure and invest in mutual funds through SIPs. The amount so accumulated can be used to prepay the loan
- Keep in constant touch with clients through multiple touchpoints
