Dhanteras marks the start of Diwali when traditionally Indians buy gold as it is considered an auspicious day. MFDs over the years have seized this opportunity to convince investors to deploy money in mutual funds through SIPs.
Here are the stories of 4 MFDs who carried out SIP drive successfully and one MFD who did SIPs across 25 fund houses on Dhanteras. Let’s hear from them.
Deepak Khandelwal, R G Associates, Jaipur
Post volatility in March and April, I realised that while many clients have invested for long-term goals, they do not have adequate funds to deal with an emergency.
As a result, many clients panic and redeem their investments during volatile and uncertain times.
Since Dhanteras is considered an auspicious occasion for new investments, I reached out to all my existing clients who did not have any investment in fixed income funds and gold ETFs.
Overall, I executed 111 SIPs amounting to Rs.3.50 lakh in gold ETFs and fixed income funds.
Praveen Kumar Jain, Agra
Since we have been conducting SIP drives quite regularly, we looked at clients who were interested during our earlier SIP drives but couldn't invest then for some reason or the other.
Next, we looked for existing clients who had the potential to top up their investment. To this end, we identified investors who had not topped up their SIPs for the last three or five years.
Also, to encourage new clients, we conducted knowledge webinars and requested existing clients to spread the word among their colleagues and friends. I also invited them for one on one interactions to educate them about mutual funds and behavioural biases.
Finally, nearly 100 new clients and 200 existing clients participated in the SIP drive. We executed over 700 SIPs on Dhanteras.
Sachin Kharate, Varad Financial Services, Nashik
I believe all MFDs can do SIP drives during Diwali as clients look forward to this day to make fresh investments.
I have been doing SIP drives for the last three years. This time, I was not sure if it would be a good idea to conduct an SIP drive but when we started reaching out to clients for the drive, we realised that many of them had been waiting for this time to top up their investment in mutual funds.
We decorated our office just the way jewelers do to create a celebratory environment and encouraged clients to make fresh investments.
Also, we did portfolio review before this Diwali and shared investment reports with clients highlighting the changes they needed to make in their portfolio.
In addition, we approached clients who had paused their SIP during the pandemic. We asked them to gradually resume their investments and participate in this drive.
As a result, we were able to execute 125 SIPs amounting to Rs 3.25 lakh and 100 lump sum investments totaling Rs. 27 lakh.
Shreyansh Kumar, Agra
Most of my clients are young. In this SIP drive, I targeted millennials clients through referrals as most of them are working from home and saving money incurred on travel and eating out. Further, they do not prefer buying physical gold on Dhanteras.
I conducted a knowledge webinar for them and followed up with all attendees individually through phone and video calls to encourage them to start SIP in mutual funds.
I initiated116 SIPs amounting to Rs 2.25 lakh from 50 clients.
Rajesh Kulwal, Indore
We did SIPs across 25 fund houses. The idea is to give fresh business to AMCs we are working with on the auspicious occasion of Dhanteras. We have been following this tradition for the last 15 years. In fact, if for any reason, a fund house does not get an SIP, I start my own SIP as I do not want any fund house to be disappointed!