For Gurugram based IFA Ashish Chadha, his father is his role model. And in a quest to emulate his father, he has done everything that his father did.
Since Ashish’s father was an army officer, he joined National Defence Academy (NDA). He completed almost all the combat courses in NDA with an alpha (highest) rating and joined the Indian army. By the time, Ashish became an Army Major, his father had retired and become a financial advisor.
Ashish researched mutual funds indepth during his posting in Siachen Glacier, where he had a lot of time and the only source of entertainment was reading. Since he wanted to follow his father’s footprint, he spent a lot of time reading financial newspapers and journals to gain knowledge about mutual fund investments. At 31, he took retirement from the Indian Army and joined his father’s advisory business Chadha Investment Consultant.
Though he took retirement from the Indian Army, the “fouji” in him never retired. He believes his disciplined approach towards life instilled by the Indian Army has helped him in the advisory business too. “I am always on time, accessible for my clients 24*7 and courteous. These qualities have earned me respect from my clients,” says Ashish.
In fact, even today he follows the NDA motto that says, “Always take a harder right over the easier wrong.” He said, “Army taught me to take calculated risks and not to be scared of losses. I tell my clients the same thing and share my risk-return perspective on with mutual funds. Another quality that I imbibed from the Army is to take responsibility of everything.”
Ashish is a regular traveler and loves reading and exercising. He has travelled to over 75 countries. He says that when you travel to foreign countries, you are in uncharted and unfamiliar territory. So you need to be meticulous in your planning, much like how you do proper planning while advising clients.
He said that he practices yoga at least four days a week to keep himself calm. He believes that being in the state of “no mind” keeps him cool.
Ashish has learnt the nitty gritty of advisory business from his father. Right from meeting clients to managing client expectation, he has closely followed his father’s footstep before taking over the complete responsibility of advisory business.
Most of his father’s clients were Army officials who later became Ashish’s clients. Sharing his experience in dealing with Army officials, he said, “Most Army officials prefer keeping their money in Defence Service Officer Provident Fund (DSOP) as it offers flexibility to invest and redeem. In addition, most Army officials prefer discussing with friends and family before making investment decision. Hence, we conduct investment awareness sessions for group of army officials and encourage them to invest small amount in mutual funds through SIPs to gain their confidence. In my experience, these investors increase their investment after experiencing that mutual fund offers attractive returns, flexibility and transparency.”
“Another learning is that they are transferred frequently and posted all over the country. Hence, we stay in constant touch with them through phone calls and skype calls. In these interactions, we give them update on their investments and discuss progress of their financial goals,” he said.
While Ashish was acquiring new clients largely army officials through referrals, he was not happy with the growth of his company.
Ashish turned to private sector employees especially call centers in Gurugram. Since most employees work at night to match international timelines, he started investor awareness sessions for them at midnight. In these IAPs, he covers topics like benefits of investing in mutual funds, SIPs for buying a dream car or bike and SIPs to fund vacation every year to educate them about mutual funds and help make informed investment decision.
“We call all our clients once a month to keep in touch. We give equal weightage to all clients irrespective of the size of their AUM,” he said.
Today Ashish caters to over 3000 clients and manages over Rs.1000 crore AUM.
Ashish has offices in major cities - Gurugram, Delhi and Bangalore and a team of 25 employees. He aims to open more branch offices to cater to army officials and target new clients.
