Sujan Das, a Kolkata based IFA always dreamt of being be an actor but fate had other plans for him. Pallabika Ganguly traces his success story from an actor to a financial advisor
Sujan Das, a passionate actor from his college days had never even thought of financial advisory as his career. After graduating in 1997, he performed in group theatres. Besides theatre, he was also a gadget freak. So, along with acting, he pursued a diploma in computers as that was the buzzing technology during those days in Kolkata.
After completing his diploma in 1999, he was placed by the institute in Bajaj Capital as a computer operator. Sujan got too involved in his new job and slowly got detached from theatre. He made good progress in his job and was appointed as EDP in-charge of East India within three months. His responsibility was to look after digitalization in all branches. Besides handling the technology part of the branch, he also assisted the distribution manager of the branch.
Within a year’s time, the distribution manager quit the job and the position was offered to Sujan. He immediately grabbed the opportunity and soon developed a good relation with sub-brokers. Sujan was also successful in expanding sub broker business of Bajaj Capital in other cities. He became an expert in handling retail brokers and was now keen to learn more about corporate brokers and clients. So he quit Bajaj Capital in 2003 and joined A K Capital. “I wanted to learn the investing practices of corporate clients so I decided to join A K Capital which was strong on the corporate side. It introduced to a new culture of investing to me,” recalls Sujan.
In 2007, after gathering enough experience in the mutual fund industry he decided to launch financial advisory business Wealth Max Consultants with his wife. But within a year’s time, they had to face the worst time in the financial service business as it was the beginning of recession and soon SEBI introduced new regulations for the MF industry. The couple stood by their clients during that phase. “We used to visit our clients personally and solve their queries and suggested them to stay invested. While there were many advisors who avoided client’s calls we did not do that which worked in our favor and we were able to grow our client base,” said Sujan.
Unique Marketing technique
Sujan believes in educating his clients on investments. According to him, clients are not well educated in India making them vulnerable to unscrupulous people who mis sell and then abandon their clients. He has been able to grow his business through referrals and currently has 600 clients under his belt. Also his AUM has grown by multi folds over the years and has been able to generate Rs 35 crore in four years.
Changes in Regulations
Sujan feels that the new rules introduced by SEBI are benefiting the industry but at the same time the regulator should pay more attention to investor education program. According to him, the investor awareness meetings do not draw new investors because it is the same old investors who keep on attending these programs. He feels that there should be more advertising campaigns initiated by various AMCs and AMFI to draw new investors to the industry.
Ban of Entry Load
The ban of entry load did not affect him so much as he does not believe in churning. “I suggest long term investments to most of my investors so the ban did not affect me too much,” claims Sujan.
View on SEBI’s new rule - Agents or Advisor
Sujan welcomes SEBI’s new rule but at the same time requests the regulator to also educate the clients. He says, “In India, clients do not want to pay Rs 100 as advisory fee and therefore they should first understand the difference between agents and advisors. I qualify as an advisor but I can’t charge clients. As we pay service fee to doctors and lawyers, the same way a fee should be paid to advisors for their service. Therefore, investors should understand the importance of advisory.”
Advice to new IFAs
Sujan believes that dedication and hard work can create wonders in this industry.