Mr. Vishal Merchant
SafeInvest - Surat

Mr. Vishal Merchant has been one of the oldest Partner and client of NJ Wealth with the relationship now of nearly 20+ years. A truly inspirational, passionate and organised professional, Vishal has truly chartered a success story that is a testimony to his vision and his investor centric philosophy..

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Q1] The market crashes are not new and we have seen such events occur from time to time. Being an old Partner, what has been your key learnings from the past experiences of market crashes?

Answer: The markets goes through up such extreme movements which no one can really predict. The most important learning is that we, as well as our investors, must not take the market behaviour casually. We must also realise that no one can ever catch the exact TOP & BOTTOM of the market. The right approach would be to understand the valuations of the broad markets. When we have this understanding, we would know if there is euphoria and over-optimism in the markets or if there is extreme fear and pessimism as if everything is going to end, like it is happening today. It is of utmost importance that we have a balanced realistic approach to the markets or simply just respect our Asset Allocation only.

Q2] What kind of queries, concern and requests are you receiving from your investors at this point of time? Please also share with us your reply to such investors and how you are handling investor anxiety?

Answer: Many clients are very impulsive by nature & in such market behaviour, they are asking what will happen now? should we stop SIP or redeem our existing equity investments? how much more downside we can expect? when the market will bounce back? And so on. That we are telling them boldly and clearly is that you should first revisit your asset allocation & increase equity allocation. And if you are not convinced to increase the equity allocation, then don't do anything.

We are requesting investors to please NOT take any emotional calls like withdrawing equity investments or stopping the SIPs/STPs at this point of time. In fact, at this point in time, we are even promoting our Dynamic AA strategy (MARS /PMS) very aggressively & telling them to make an additional purchase in the same as well. We are meeting concerned investors personally & showcasing them the historical evidence of our Dynamic AA performance in different market situations.

Q3] Investor communication is critical at this point in time. As an advisor, there is a need to communicate transparently with investors. Please share with us any activity/communication that has you been presently doing with your investors?

Answer: Here I would say, most of the advisors are not willing to meet clients due to erosion in the existing equity portfolio or less returns. I think we should increase our client meetings /interactions at this point in time. We must 'educate' them about what is the difference between event-based market correction vs fundamental based market correction. We have to showcase them the historical evidence of past market corrections vs their portfolio performances. How the portfolio has given returns after 1 /2 /3 years after the correction. We need to once again explain investors the cost averaging benefits through SIP and that this is the ideal time to invest more through SIPs. We can also send them our MCS through whatsapp, etc. Lastly, I would urge Partners to not avoid or stop meeting or communicating with clients. In fact, we must proactively and confidently communicate at this point in time.

Q4] There would many new Partners who would be experiencing such markets for the first time. It is likely that they may be low on confidence and conviction in equities & India growth story at this time. What are the key learnings and experience you would like to share with such Partners?

Answer: Firstly I would suggest to new Partners... Friends, we are in the business of managing people's money, So we should be very confident about our actions. We must not be casual with money. Before the investments are taken from the clients, we must ask the following questions...

• Period of investments

• Purpose of investments

• First time investing in Equity or not &

• Most importantly, current AA on the overall assets (financial & physical)

After the above clarity, it would be easy for us to advice to clients for new investment through Lump-sum & SIP. If we have done so properly, we won't need to worry about short term market corrections. Making investors aware of the nature of risks of equity is an essential part of the process. India is a great country to earn real returns above inflation over a long period of time and thus create wealth due to the many inherent advantages of a large, developing country like India.

I must also say that focusing on right selling through solutions like MARS/PMS, planning for life goals and mapping investments as well as making use of the Automated Investment Solution for any new investment decision with new investors, would be the right thing to do and also very wise and beneficial for our business. As a Partner, if we make use of this approach, as we have done aggressively for many years, the impact of such market situations would be minimal. Think about it.

Q5] Please share us on your experience with MARS and also the share of your AUM in the MARS. How do you think MARS can be a helpful strategy at these times?

Answer: I think once again all NJ Partners should read Neeraj bhai's letter on "Time To Increase Equity". Which, itself tells us everything about the opportunity in investing through MARS. We at SAFEinvest have adopted the MARS platform in 2014 after a long discussion with the team. And then after, we have not advised even a single investment without the MARS platform. I think still many Partners are understanding that MARS is a product. But my friend, it's not the product, it's a completely automated platform, which helps us as well as our clients to maintain their asset allocation in different market situations. And more importantly, MARS is helping to control WRONG emotions of ours & our clients also.

I can confidently say that with 17 years of experience, the generation of consistent return from equity investment only requires "Common Sense with utmost Discipline". And I think MARS is the platform which does exactly the same on behalf of advisors & investors.

If you look at the current correction, many of our clients are worrying to deploy additional money and due to MARS dynamic AA, we are increasing Equity allocation substantially (70%). I am telling you, no investor or advisor can decide on their own to increase Equity at this point of time, because of the intensity with which market has fallen making everyone lose confidence. Only through MARS can we execute the allocation towards equity so smoothly and automatically across our clientele. I am sure that with the scientific approach applied by MARS, the fruits of this execution will be definitely seed in next 2-3 years only.

SAFEinvest is deeply in love with MARS management. Currently, our 70% AUM is managed dynamically through MARS & PMS platform only. I advise all NJ Partners, please adopt the MARS platform for all of your clients & let's make ourselves as the "True Client First Advisory Community" across India...