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Wealth Forum Western Region Advisors Conference
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July 2nd & 3rd 2010, Mumbai
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Over 110 leading IFAs from 14 locations across Western India and five leading AMCs participated in the
Wealth Forum Western Region Advisors Conference in Mumbai on 2nd & 3rd July, 2010. The conference provided Western India's leading IFAs a
unique forum to share insights and ideas on how to grow their advisory business in these challenging times. The conference featured panel
discussions on contemporary business issues, case studies of successful advisors across India, thought-provoking insights from leading AMCs
and an exclusive message from the regulator on the road ahead for the advisory and distribution business. Feedback from participants was
unanimous : every advisor took back tangible, practical business ideas that they intend implementing in their own businesses to help them
scale up further and achieve even more success than they already have. And that is the core objective of the Wealth Forum conferences -
we want to see serious and committed advisors gaining greater success in their profession and are glad to be a catalyst in our own little way in helping them onto this road to greater success. |
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Our sincere gratitude to the five participating AMCs - ICICI Prudential, Birla Sun Life, Axis, Principal and DSP Blackrock for co-sponsoring this conference and for sharing their rich insights with the participants. |
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The conference begins..... |
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Vijay Venkatram, Director, Wealth Forum, kicks off the 2 day conference
with a welcome address. He spelt out the objectives of this conference and
how these objectives were sought to be accomplished over the 2 days of the
conference |
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Over 110 leading advisors from 14 cities across Western India - are all
smiles : an encouraging sign in these challenging times ! |
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SEBI's message : the road ahead for the advisory and distribution business |
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A lively discussion followed Mr. K.N. Vaidyanathan's exclusive recorded
interview on the road ahead for the distribution business. Mona Fakih of
Allegience Advisors, Mumbai makes a point on the need for the regulator,
AMFI and AMCs to do much more in promoting equity funds as a long term
wealth creation vehicle and not as a short term avenue for quick returns |
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Sumeet Vaid of Freedom Financial Planners, Mumbai makes a point on the need for AMCs to reorient marketing communication to
stress on need based solutions rather than past
performance |
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Samit Choudhary, Mumbai chips into the lively debate |
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Ranjit Dani of Think Consultants, Nagpur shares his perspectives |
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Christopher Louzado, Pune has a question……. |
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Case studies of some of the finest advisors from across the country |
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Case studies of leading advisors across India - through video clips of their
interviews conducted by Wealth Forum - went down very well with all
participants. Practical insights from the leaders on how they are tackling
current business challenges and preparing for the future were immensely
appreciated by one and all. |
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A lively discussion followed the first case study - that of Ashish Chadha,
Delhi. Should you recommend dividend payout or growth option - that was a
matter where opinions were sharply divided. Pramod Saraf, Indore offers
his views…. |
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Nitin Patel, Ahmedabad talks about the importance of dividends |
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Pramod Puranik, Nasik stirred up quite a debate when he questioned whether
mutual funds are truly long term wealth creators - and therefore rooted
strongly for frequent and large dividend payouts |
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Milind Sarawate, Mumbai reeled off impressive statistics to prove the
phenomenal track record of Indian mutual funds in truly
creating long term wealth for investors. That pretty
much settled at least this debate ! |
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Birla Sun Life AMC Presentation |
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Speak the language of the customer - and not the manufacturer - and see
how investors respond to you : that was the key message that Kalpen Parekh
- National Sales Head, Birla Sun Life AMC - passionately delivered to the
gathering. He showcased a number of communication initiatives that his AMC
has undertaken in recent months - many of which were in tandem with key
distributors and advisors - and also showcased how effective these have been
in boosting business. |
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Raj Shekar from the Birla Sun Life Real Estate Investment team took
participants through the real estate investment solutions that
his Group has launched. |
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Group Photo |
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Time for a group photo………. |
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Axis AMC Presentation |
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Karan Datta, National Sales Head, Axis AMC, spells out how hybrid funds
that aim to reduce volatility and deliver better-than-FD-returns can be a
game changer for retail penetration of MFs - and can easily double retail
AuM for the industry |
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Mona Fakih, Allegience Advisors, Mumbai has a question… |
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..... which is addressed by Rajiv Anand, MD & CEO, Axis AMC |
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Amit Maheshwari, Indore makes a point … |
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……as does Christopher Louzado, Pune |
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Nitin Patel, Ahmedabad makes a point on competitor products from the
insurance industry and the distributor's dilemma of making a choice
between competing products with vastly different
commission structures |
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Mukesh Dedhia of Ghalla & Bhansali Securities, Mumbai shares his insights
on tackling this dilemma |
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Chandulal Vasa, Mumbai chips into the debate with his perspectives… |
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….but Roopa Venkatakrishnan, Mumbai has the final word. |
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Panel Discussion : Leveraging platforms to drive business growth |
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Sumeet Vaid of Freedom Financial Planners, Mumbai talks about his
experiences in setting up avisor platforms before he became an advisor
himself and his subsequent search (in vain) for a financial planning platform -
which led him to develop his own financial planning platform as a backbone
that will support the growth of his firm in the years ahead |
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Sanjay Shah of Prudent Corporate Advisory Services, Ahmedabad - a
leading super-distributor platform provider in Western India - discussed the merits of platforms
as also the key issues that deter larger
advisors from joining super-distributor platforms : the perceived need
for an independent identity and the resistance to share commissions
with the platform provider |
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Principal AMC presentation |
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Shyam Bhat, Senior Fund Manager, Principal AMC talks about the key drivers
and the road ahead for equity markets |
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Prashant Joshi, Head - Products, Principal AMC highlights the need and
relevance of asset allocation products that use trailing
PE multiples as triggers. |
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Chandulal Vasa, Mumbai has a question on the impact of rising interest rates
on the acceptable levels of PE multiples for stocks |
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Shyam Bhat provides his perspective on the linkage between interest rates
and stock market PE multiples |
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Panel Discussion : Managing Growth in Changing Times |
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The three panellists - Mukesh Dedhia, Nilakshi Louzado and Nikhil Naik
being introduced by Vijay Venkatram |
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Mukesh Dedhia of Ghalla & Bhansali Securities, Mumbai stressed on the
need for investor education and discussed how his client
acquisition and growth strategy revolves around only one thing
: investor education - on a no obligation basis. |
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Nilakshi Louzado of InTrust Advisors, Pune left the participants spell-bound
with her eloquent description of how she and Christopher Louzado run a very
distinctive and highly successful advisory firm - on their own terms. Understand
what you do best and do a great job of that - without cluttering your mind with
anything else : a true embodiment of the hedgehog principle as applied in the
financial advisory space ! |
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Nikhil Naik of Naik Wealth, Mumbai gave a very thought-provoking
presentation on the need to brand your financial advisory
practice to drive growth |
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A case study that came to life - literally ! |
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After playing the video clips of Jaydeep Kashikar - Brainpoint Investment
Centre, Mumbai, there were many questions and observations. With Jaydeep
present among the participants, he gamely responded to the barrage of
questions that centred around one issue : how do you get your calls right so
often? |
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The debate on active advisory vs asset allocation based periodic
rebalancing was enriched by Bharat Phatak of Wealth Managers
(India), Pune who commented on the need to actively review
portfolios and actively communicate with clients - but not
necessarily translating into active movements in the portfolio |
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Roopa Venkatakrishnan, Mumbai is not a great advocate of active advisory -
and prefers to stick with a well defined asset allocation and periodic reviews.
She believes that taking market calls is a tricky business which is best avoided |
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Shrenik Shah of Safe Assets, Ahmedabad talks about client expectations on
active advisory calls |
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Sumeet Vaid of Freedom Financial Planners, Mumbai makes a point about the
near-impossibility of getting market timing calls right |
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Mukesh Dedhia of Ghalla & Bhansali Securities, Mumbai - who follows
technical analysis very closely humbly puts down his track record of
getting many major calls right to plain good luck. Congratulating Jaydeep
Kashikar on his impeccable track record on his market and asset
class calls, he asks Jaydeep to reveal the secret of his
success….. |
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……Jaydeep willingly obliges and rattles off some of the quantitative
parameters he tracks closely. He clarifies that market calls are taken only
when he believes an asset class is trading at an extreme valuation - either
way. There are times where no market calls are taken even for a couple of
years. Its just that the last three years have seen such extremes - that they
presented him many opportunities to take dispassionate calls based on hard
numbers and not sentiment |
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Sangeeta Jhaveri of Prescient Financial, Mumbai asked the question that
most participants wanted to know from Jaydeep : what's
your market call now? |
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ICICI Prudential AMC Presentation |
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Advisors gave a huge round of applause to Nilesh Shah, Deputy CEO, ICICI
Prudential AMC even before he uttered a single word - a measure of the
huge respect he commands. And Nilesh didn't let anybody down - there was
literally pin-drop silence through the time that Nilesh spoke - explaining
the root cause of problems around the world in his own inimitable style
and explaining the basis of his optimism about India even in this troubled
environment. He rattled off all the plausible objections that investors may have
about investing in Indian equities now - and gave very effective objection
handling arguments to win them over and convince them about investing in
Indian equities |
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Nilakshi Louzado, Pune suggested that Nilesh use his persuasive and
oratorial skills to higher use - maybe a stint with the
Government - like Nandan Nilekani - to make a difference on a
larger platform ! Nilesh mildly suggested that if he were able
to use his persuasive and oratorial skills to influence the
financial market regulators, he would be a very contented man
indeed ! |
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Nilesh was literally "mobbed" at the coffee break - and was unable to make
it outside the conference room for a well earned cup of coffee - such was
the participants enthusiasm to get him to answer all their questions |
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Eventually, a cup of coffee found its way to Nilesh - as the unofficial Q&A
continued unabated |
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DSP Blackrock AMC Presentation |
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Participants were treated to a rare double header. After Nilesh Shah came
another equally respected market guru - S. Nagnath, President & CIO of DSP
Blackrock Investment Managers. And Nagnath didn't disappoint his many fans
in the room - with his succinct analysis of key drivers for markets around
the world and his clear and forthright predictions - near term and long
term - for equity and bond markets. |
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Pravin Bhalerao of Finest Wealth Managers, Pune has a question for
Nagnath on bond markets |
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Anish Albuquerque of Shivranjani Securities, Panjim also has a question for
Nagnath… |
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Sabapathy Iyer of J.R. Laddha & Co, Mumbai makes a point |
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Jaydeep Kashikar of Brainpoint Investment Centre, Mumbai asks Nagnath
about his firm's earnings projections for FY11 and whether there have been
any revisions in the estimates in recent weeks |
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Samit Choudhary, Mumbai seeks guidance on how to react to the DTC
proposals |
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Panel Discussion : Managing change |
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The panellists - Bharat Phatak, Roopa Venkatakrishnan and Ganesh
Shanbhag
being introduced by Vijay Venkatram |
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Bharat Phatak of Wealth Managers (India), Pune took the discussion to a
different level with his fascinating thoughts on managing the transition from an
IFA to a wealth management firm |
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Roopa Venkatakrishnan, Mumbai fought off her ill health and sore throat to
share her experiences with the participants on how she has coped with and
managed her business in a rapidly changing regulatory landscape |
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Ganesh Shanbhag of SMS Financial, Mumbai gave a spirited presentation
on the need to be a lot more outward looking - to understand how the world
around us is changing - and on how to succeed in a globally integrated world |
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Wrap Up |
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Vijay Venkatram wraps up the conference with his closing thoughts and
observations |
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Pramod Saraf, Indore shares his closing observations… |
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… as does Ranjit Dani of Think Consultants, Nagpur |
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Mukesh Dedhia proposes an impromptu vote of thanks to the Wealth Forum
team. The month long initiative of regional advisor
conferences covering over 400 leading advisors from 65
cities across India finally draws to a close. |
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