Mr. Ripal Ray
Vadodara
Mr. Ray has worked in Credit Cards, Home Loans and Life Insurance fields for 12 years. He has been a part of the MDRT in Life Insurance from 2005-2010 when he was associated with ICICI Pru Life Insurance. Currently, he is working as an IFA, advising Mutual Funds to people for the past 7 yrs.
Team e-Saathi respects the zeal, enthusiasm & passion of Mr. Ripal Ray, the way he has carried forward his journey by working in diverse product-lines and serving 1000+ clients. We wish all the very best to him and his clients.
ES: What inspired you to choose the career of a financial advisor / distributor?
Ripal: I have already worked in the financial field, but I wasn't satisfied because those products were not creating wealth for my investors. So I decided to offer comprehensive financial planning services to my clients, and products which can ultimately create wealth for them. And hence I landed up with advising Mutual Funds.
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?
Ripal: Yes setting up of any business takes time, but for me as I already had existing clients in Home Loan & Life Insurance which held me to establish my business in Mutual Funds.
ES: Do you promote the idea of savings through MF SIP in your clients?
Ripal: Yes, I believe that the SIP mode is one of the best methods of investing in Mutual Funds. For this reason, most of my clients invest through MF SIP for their financial goals.
ES: Client communications is an integral part of your business. Please share any best practices / services related to communications adopted by you.
Ripal: We remain in constant touch with our clients with the view to propagate any new investment products or investment ideas. We send newsletters to all our clients on a monthly basis. We also do client meets twice a year.
ES: How much importance do you give to Insurance in you advisory practice?
Ripal: Insurance is one of the most important products one must have. Insurance gives you financial freedom in crisis. If one doesn't have proper insurance, his/her entire financial plan; savings and investments, can be displaced and thereby one may have to compromise with his/her financial goals. So we make sure that all our clients have sufficient Insurance.
ES: How do you educate and convince your clients for mutual funds, especially the first time investors?
Ripal: We educate our clients that long term investing is ideal, especially for equity investments. We analyze our clients' requirements and then try to convince them to invest in Mutual Funds by showing them the benefits of long term investing in MF.
ES: Your experience with NJ's technology initiatives in terms of various Desks for Clients & Partners?
Ripal: NJ has always been a pioneer in bringing forth and implementing the latest technology. NJ's Partner Desk and Client Desk helps in smoothening out a lot of operational bumps. Online portals like E Wealth account and Mobile apps are a big advantage for our business. They simplify the Investment experience in mutual funds and capital markets.
As far as E-Wealth Ac is concern, the biggest advantage of NJ E-Wealth is, the entire investing process is carried out online and in a simplified manner, since it is very user friendly also. NJ E-Wealth Mobile app is also very simple and easy to use.
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?
Ripal: The Future of Financial Advisory business in India is very bright. There will be some challenges in terms of regulatory changes, and we should prepare ourselves to face the challenges and move ahead growing our business.
ES: How much importance do you give to Asset Allocation & Risk Profiling while offering solutions to clients needs?
Ripal: We keep things simple. Whenever we meet a client, we try to get the maximum information from him/her, and most of the times, we find that the client is under invested in equities. We try to make them understand the importance of asset allocation and its impact on the overall investment portfolio. We also explain the concept of Real Return on investment, which takes the inflation factor into account, and explain that many investments are offering very low real returns, which may hamper their long term goals.
ES: Please share your vision and mission or goals in life.
Ripal: My vision is to achieve Rs 100 cr AUA by 2018 and Rs 500 cr AUA by 2025.
My mission is to impart total financial freedom to my clients, by helping them achieve their goals in life.