Mr. Jitendra Shah
Surat
ES: Please introduce yourself and also share your vision and mission or goals in life.
Answer: Born in Kolkata, studied in Chennai, doing investment advisory business in Surat. I did BSC(Maths) from CHENNAI UNIVERSITY, and shifted to Surat in 1990. I was into manufacturing of fabrics for 15 years and was running a full fledged industry. I was not really satisfied running the industry and was wanting to do something different, so I joined the financial field through NJ in 2006.
ES: What inspired you to choose the career of a financial advisor / distributor?
Answer: My brother was in close contact with Mr Niraj Choksi, as they were in the same rotary club. He took me to meet Niraj Bhai seeking guidance on what career I should pursue further after I had closed the textile industry. Neeraj Bhai told me “Don’t search for any jobs, as you have been doing business all your life you should start an investment advisory business”. He explained to me in detail that I will not only be creating wealth of my own in this business, but will be creating wealth for others in the society too, by educating them to invest in the right way. I was fully convinced and went ahead with the career of a financial advisor.
ES: Setting the financial advisory business takes some time. How did you handle the challenges on the financial front in the initial period of the business?
Answer: The initial two years were very tough as when I had started my advisory business, people had little knowledge about mutual funds and to add to it, the markets crashed to an all time low in 2008 when it fell from 21000 to 8500. It was very tough to convince people at that juncture, as the people who invested felt that fixed deposits was the best option to invest in. I had a good reputation in my previous textile field and my clients felt that I will not be guiding them in the wrong path. I had told them that bad markets will come and go, stay invested for a long time and the benefits will come. I am glad they listened to me and are reaping huge benefits because of their trust in me.
ES: What made you to join NJ as an NJ Partner?
Answer: I had known NJ before I had joined them. I knew about their ethical practices, latest technology updates and their support. There could not be a better choice to start investment advisory business other than with NJ.
ES: Do you promote the idea of savings through MF SIP in your clients?
Answer: Yes definitely, there cannot be a better way for the investor to grow his wealth other than through an SIP. It makes the investor more disciplined, systematic and each installment takes him a step forward towards his goals. I always tell my clients when you invest in an SIP, you can Sleep In Peace.
ES: Client communications is an integral part of your business. Please share any best practices / services related to communications adopted by you.
Answer: I communicate regularly with my clients through SMS, WhatsApp and emails. I send them birthdays wishes too. It is not possible to meet all clients when you cross 2000 clients, so I hold client meets often to stay in touch with them. MCS images and videos are also an effective way to stay in touch and creating your own brand, and is a good way of continuously updating clients.
ES: How do you educate and convince your clients for mutual funds, especially the first time investors?
Answer: I always educate my clients that for getting inflation beating returns, mutual fund is the best option. I show them the comparisons of returns generated through fixed deposits, gold, ppf or an lic which gives a return of 7-8% annually, whereas an equity mutual fund gives returns of about 15% over a period of 10 to 15 years.
ES: Your experience with NJ's technology initiatives in terms of various Desks for Clients & Partners?
Answer: Since there is a lot of work and so little time, technology is the only solution to this. Ours being a highly service oriented business, NJ technology is simply a great way to expand our business through e-wealth, Client Desks and Partner Desks.
ES: What advantages do you feel NJ E-Wealth offers to both Clients and Partners?
Answer: Until a few years back, we could not even dream that our client sitting in the comfort of his home would be buying mutual funds online through us. It's all because of NJ E-Wealth that this is possible. Clients are able to buy liquid funds online and withdraw online regularly, it would not have been possible for us to give him this facility in physical transactions on a regular basis.
Another advantage of NJ E-Wealth is MARS, it's really difficult for us to face clients in a down market and giving them their valuation reports showing poor returns. MARS has helped us overcome this and we can show the clients moderate returns even in a low market.
ES: How do you assess /see the future of financial advisory business in India? How can we as Partners be ready / prepared to make the most of it?
Answer: Government norms are going to get stricter and tougher, the tough will survive and weak will perish. NJ with its ethical practices and sound technology will help NJ partners to survive and be ahead of other individual advisors.
ES: Self evaluation and assessment is something we all should do regularly. How do you assess your own self and/or your business? Are there any specific parameters you refer to?
Answer: Self evaluation and assessment is the most important to grow your business. Business targets cannot be reached without proper planning. If you have a goal for a particular year, you should evaluate per month what you should achieve to reach that goal, further evaluate per week and per day the target required to reach your goal. Your daily sales targets will keep you on your toes and will motivate you to reach your yearly sales target. Continuous evaluation of your business is a must and should be done regularly.
ES: Can you please share your short term and long term targets for your business.
Answer: My target for 2020 is an AUM of 200 crores and a live SIP book of 200 lacs.
Mr. Kirti Visariya & Mr. Pratik Visariya
Valsad
ES: Please introduce yourself.
Answer: I have completed my Graduation in commerce from Mumbai university, and started working in Anchor Electricals (presently know as Greatwhite Ele. Pvt ltd) as Accounts Head. Later, we shifted to Daman and continued the job.
ES: What inspired you to choose the career of a financial advisor / distributor?
Answer: My wife’s friend suggested us to take an agency of Life Insurance, so we went to meet Mr. Suresh Patel (one of NJ’s leading Partners) for a second opinion, as I wanted to do the business along with my job. His positive words encouraged us and we took the agency of Life and Non life Insurance in the year 1997.
Moving a step forward in the year 2002, I left my job and started working full time in Life insurance, General insurance and Post Office Schemes.
ES: Setting the financial advisory business takes some time. How did you handle the challenges on the financial front in the initial period of your business?
Answer: In the initial years, it was very difficult to manage job and business simultaneously, but with my wife’s support we were able to do it. She has always been my back bone, manages our office and supports me in business. There were times when I had a doubt that whether will we be able to continue the business which we had started. She always motivated me when I felt so, but now I am glad that YES we did it!!!
ES: What made you join NJ as an NJ Partner?
Answer: In the year 2003, I got a call from Mr. Paras Kothari (he used to handle Valsad NJ branch) to join NJ as a Mutual fund distributor, which initially I ignored, as it was a new thing for me.
Later, I joined NJ only to sell INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS for tax saving purpose.
ES: What does investment in MUTUAL FUNDS mean to you for your clients?
Answer: In the initial years, I used to advise mutual funds for NFO’s and SIP’s only. But as time passed and as I gained experience, my approach towards clients' investments changed from suggesting only mutual funds to FINANCIAL PLANNING, as we believe that each and every person needs financial planning. We are now fully focused on FINANCIAL PLANNING for the client, and not on advising any particular product.
ES: Client communications is an integral part of your business. Please share any best practices / services related to communications adopted by you.
Answer: From the time I started my business, I used to send valuation reports to each and every client of mine, every month, as it is a way of keeping my clients updated.
Today, we install NJ CLIENT DESK in clients' smart phones which will keep them updated on their investments. Not only the NJ investments, we also suggest them to add their existing investments so that they can easily see their entire net worth. This would help them understand that how much equity or debt should be there in their portfolio.
ES: How do you educate your clients for mutual funds?
Answer: I follow these steps:
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Take appropriate time
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Make them understand the importance of Financial Planning
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Inculcate a new seed in the client: “Insurance And Investments Are Two Separate Things. Never Combine Them”
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Evaluate his existing savings and investments
ES: For the first time investors what do you do?
Answer: First time clients are normally called in a client meet along with wife/parents and then I go to meet them personally. 85% of my work is done in client meet itself and when I go to meet them personally, I solve their doubts and touch on insurance so that the person is fully covered.
ES: Your experience with NJ's technology initiatives in terms of various Desks for Clients & Partners?
Answer: My experience is superb and the initiatives which NJ take are simply awesome. Let me explain the same with an example, there are clients who have the potential to invest and also want to invest but only because they don’t have a cheque book or e-wealth account password, they postpone It. Here, I take the help of PARTNER INITIATED TRANSACTION facility and help them to invest or reset their password from Partner Desk application and then guide them.
ES: Can you share any incident /event which has had a lasting impact on you or on your business as a financial advisor /distributor?
Answer: I have a client who is at a good designation in a reputed company, he met me and we discussed about Financial Planning. After a day or two, I did my routine follow up, the answer I got from him was NO. But still he used to ask me about some products and I continued to solve his queries and he kept on buying policies for investment from someone else. Approximately 4 years later, he turned up and we did the planning which we had discussed 4 years ago, and from that time, he started investing and now has full faith in us. This made me understand that if we do our job faithfully and be in touch with a client, then he is going to come back and then will never leave us.
ES: How do you assess/see the future of financial advisory business in India? How can we as Partners be ready / prepared to make the most of it?
Answer: The future is very bright and if changes come, they might break our comfort zone for some time, but what we need to do is be a master in our field, and just saying it doesn’t confirm it. Therefore, I suggest everyone to do CFMcm, because only then we'll start thinking like a FINANCIAL PLANNER and not like a MUTUAL FUND DISTRIBUTOR.
ES: How much importance do you give to Asset Allocation & how do you ensure it is taken care of?
Answer: Asset allocation and Risk Profiling is very important for everyone. When we meet a client, we normally assess his/her existing investments, his behavior towards markets and equity, and then we decide the funds or asset allocation and most times we have suggested MARS to the clients.
We normally sell only equity to our clients, but my experience has taught me that there should be some liquid funds in clients' portfolios as well. Reason being that every client can assess his/her portfolio very easily and withdrawal is also very easy, therefore when we keep liquid funds in a client's portfolio, he will mostly withdraw only the liquid fund and not equity, which will help him get more returns.
ES: What suggestion / advice would you like to give to new Partners who have not yet established themselves in the business?
Answer:
1) If you are considering this business as your full time business, only then join it.
2) Always attend partner meets, it will keep you updated on what is going on in the financial market.
3) I believe that when you interact with existing partners, you learn the most. Therefore, I always suggest every new partner to attend PBC, it gives you new ideas, motivation and a superb experience.
ES: Can you please share your short term and long term targets for your business.
Answer: Short term – 100cr by 31st march 2020
Long term – 1000cr by 31st march 2025
