Manish Mehta, National Head Sales & Distribution Alliances, Kotak MF
14th August 2017
In a nutshell
After the hugely successful inaugural annual SIP Day last August, Kotak MF is back with its 2nd edition of SIP Day - on 18th August 2017. There's a lot of buzz that Team Kotak MF is creating around this year's SIP Day - buzz that you can help co-create, spread awareness and leverage for marketing your SIP initiatives. Manish takes us through all the action around SIP Day and invites you to participate wholeheartedly in making this year's SIP Day even bigger than last year.
WF: After a successful launch of SIP Day last August, your 2nd annual SIP Day is coming up on 18th August. What are plans for this year's SIP Day? How do you propose to build on the momentum you generated last year?
Manish: We had received an overwhelming response to the SIP day last year. This year too we have launched a series of influencer promos starring industry stalwarts and influencers who have been propagating about the benefits of SIP. These videos are being aired on ET Now, Times Now and Romedy Nowand is helping us create the buzz. Incase you have still not seen the videos, check the link -
We have also been conducting ground events and IAPs on SIPs across the country for e.g. with the milk associations of Amul in Anand, the railway police force in Mumbai & the Ganpati Idol karigars in Mumbai.
Print ads have got carried in Maharashtra Times and Navbharat Times too. Very soon the ads will be carried in Times of India and Economic Times too.
We have also been sending out mailers under our IAP mascot FaydelalkeFunde on SIPs and how beneficial it is to our partners, investors and distributors and have been pushing out content on social media platforms. There is also a lot of visibility on SIP and SIP daybeing done at various offices of Kotak too.
WF: In what ways would you like your IFA partners to work with you to make SIP Day this year an even bigger success than last year?
Manish: Partners have been using the SIP tool very effectively for their existing customer base as well as an acquisition tool. Many partners had supported us by registering SIPs on SIP day. Investors have had a pleasant experience over the past 1 year. We would urge our partners to share stories of how they initiated SIPs on SIP day and share their investor experience. Partners can also share the link www.sipday.in with their investors for more information on SIPs, getting a glimpse of the ground activities we have catered to spread financial awareness in various segments of society and how SIPs can be stepping stone to financial freedom.
We would like SIP day to be celebrated as a day of financial independence and help giving it as much importance as birthdays, anniversaries, valentine's day and other days we celebrate.
WF: You are running a Share Your SIP Story contest with Wealth Forum - what's in it for distributors who participate in this contest?
Manish: Firstly a big thank you to all the channel partners who have shared their stories. Shukriya.
All our partners will be getting a book called" The Art of investing" which is a collection of articles and stories on various topics of Debunking myths of investing, how powerful SIP is, what history has taught us for investing, facts about Indian economy and macros which are penned by Mr Nilesh Shah. The book can be used as a tool by our partners when they meet clients and are trying to explain SIP and investments to their clients.
The cherry on the cake - 3 lucky winners will get a chance to conduct an investor awareness meet which will be sponsored by Kotak MF.
Last chance to share your SIP story and win great prizes: click here
WF: SIPs are clearly an industry success story and a great example of win-win-win for investors, distributors and fund houses. What do you see as the potential size of the industry SIP book in 5 years?
Manish: You have said it right. SIPs are clearly an industry success story and all credit goes to the distribution community to take it to the end investor. As a manufacturer we have been doing our bit on awareness creation and bringing it variants of SIPs which could suit an investor requirements. As we speak, there are 1.45 crores live SIP accounts. We have seen a 30% growth in live SIP over 2016. Assuming similar growth numbers, I wouldn't be surprised at over 4.5 crores live SIPs in the next 5 years.
WF: Can we say that retail investors have now decisively moved away from momentum based to systematic investing or should we hold our verdict until we see SIP behaviour in the midst of a sizeable correction?
Manish: With fair degree of confidence yes, investors have been using the systematic route of investing than lump sum. IFA partners have also played a key role in educating the investors.
If one looks at some best performing large cap funds their 1/3/5 year SIP returns have been 38%/ 15% /18%. Even the worst performing large cap funds have given a 12%/ 9%/ 13% return. These are interesting statistics to share with investors who are appreciating the benefits of rupee cost averaging and ability to iron out volatility plus help inculcate a discipline of investing regularly.
WF: In what ways must we reinforce our SIP communications to help investors stay the course through large corrections?
Manish: As mentioned earlier SIP returns for longer periods of time are a good tool to educate clients to continue with the SIP rather than stop. Case studies like if one had stopped the SIP in between, the opportunity loss on such decisions; some scenarios examples could help in reinforcing existing and new investors to stay the course. It is imperative to assert the discipline of continuity and power of compounding.
WF: What's your message to your distributors as you prepare for Aug 18th - the annual SIP Day?
Manish: We have always been reiterating that all of us are in a very noble profession of creating wealth for our investors and helping them in achieving their financial goals. Today 27% of equity ownership is with FIIs, at this pace we could lose our financial independence to them, is that what we want? Definitely not, the current DII participation in the markets is a testimony to it. We have already begun this movement by doing our bit through SIPs which is the right and effective tool for wealth creation.
I would urge our partners to champion this movement and help make the SIP day a grand success and contribute towards financial independence.
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