Mukesh is among the first eight CFPs in India. Pallabika Ganguly finds out how over the last two decades, he has grown to be a trusted financial planner for over seven thousand clients
A Chartered Accountant by qualification and a knowledge seeker by nature - that is how Mukesh Dedhia describes himself. He is a person who is constantly pursuing new qualifications in spite of the fact that he already holds some of the most coveted qualifications.
Mukesh started his career as a CA in 1988 and practiced for three years. He found this work boring as he felt it was too passive for his choice.
He wanted to do something closer to his heart and that was share broking. But he took this decision at a crucial stage of life when he was the only bread winner for the family. “As I was already a practicing CA, I knew I could always come back to it if things in the new venture did not turn out well,” says Mukesh. As it happened, Mukesh did not have fall back on the option.
So, in 1991, he surrendered his CA practice and launched a securities business with the support of his partners.
“In the year that I started my securities business, George Bush Sr. had attacked Iraq which led to the crash of the index from 1600 to 947 points. Therefore, the initial investments for my clients happened at that low point. And within 15 months, the index was at 4500. This gave me a boost to my business,” recalls Mukesh.
In April, 1992, the Harshad Mehta scam led to a steep fall in the market. But Mukesh’s firm did not feel the heat as they followed a high level of transparency in all transactions. During this period, he was busy consolidating his client’s portfolio. Mukesh brought in a rare degree of professionalism in the broking business.
The steady growth of his securities business paved his way to become a main broker. A BSE broker had offered to tie-up with his firm. He merged his business with the BSE broker in 1994 and led the company for four years. During the same year, he got the NSE membership card as well.
In 1997, one of his well-wishers, Sunil Gala of Navneet Publications (India) Ltd advised Mukesh to get in to mutual fund distribution. But at that time, brokers were not comfortable selling MFs as it was seen as a threat to their core business. “There was a fear that if clients invested their savings in MFs, the share of the broking pie would come down,” says Mukesh.
Gala introduced Mukesh to Bharat Shah, the then CIO of Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund over a lunch meet. Bharat was able to convince Mukesh that MFs were the future whether the brokers liked it or not. After the meeting, Ghalla Securities started the distribution of mutual funds but on a low scale. “It was very frustrating for a year to convince people to invest in MFs, “says Mukesh.
The firm entered the MF business with funds from four fund houses - Birla Sun Life, Alliance Capital, Kothari Pioneer and ITC Threadneedle. By 2000, it had established itself in the MF sector also. Mukesh was facilitated with ‘Pru Chairman's Gold Award’ by ICICI Pru Mutual Fund in 2000. In the second year, it got the bronze award and in the third year silver award.
“In 2000, yet another scam took place, the Ketan Parekh scam. Within six years, I had witnessed two scams and the resultant market boom and bust. This made me feel that I had made money during this tenure but had failed to do justice to my clients,” says Mukesh.
This is when he bumped into a CA from Bank of America. They exchanged their cards and Mukesh learnt about a new certification printed on the American’s card - CFP. On being asked about it, the gentleman explained that it is an essential certificate for any advisor in wealth management business in US.
Mukesh realized that this was the course he was looking for and it would help him to chart his clients’ financial needs and do justice to their investments. Unfortunately, it was an international course.
So when Mukesh came to know about the availability of the CFP course through an Outlook Money article, he promptly enrolled himself. In fact, Mukesh was among the first eight students to successfully complete the course.
That was to be the turning point in his MF business. After the completion of the course, he got fully involved in his business busy charting financial plans for his clients. The CFP certificate gave him the confidence to grow the financial planning business and the firm strongly believes in investing in MF industry through SIPs. He started his MF business with 20 clients and now handles over seven thousand clients and an AUM of Rs. 200 crore.
Mukesh continues to pursue his quest of knowledge and is currently doing global CFA and has successfully completed his first level.
Mukesh’s daughter is following her father’s step and has completed two modules of CFP.