i-Thought has always been known for its equity expertise on the back of which it has built up a very successful PMS book of over Rs.3000 crs.
What is noteworthy however is the unique retail guidance model it is building rapidly which brings high quality high touch guidance to retail investors – at scale.
Having established proof of concept with a sizeable base of over 5,000 retail investors with MF AuM of over Rs.750 crs, most of whom started their journey with the firm with less than Rs. 2 lakhs, Shyam has taken on a mandate to scale this up to 100,000 retail investors, whom he and his team will help embark and successfully complete the journey from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 1crore, through a dedicated platform Milestones2Wealth (https://milestones2wealth.com/).
Shyam’s retail model is starkly different in the sense that his aim is to truly democratize access to high quality guidance with the entire breadth of product options even to small retail investors. If a small investor has the risk appetite for thematic funds, why should they be denied due to inadequacies of intermediaries serving them, he asks.
His preferred mode is to add risk into portfolios at a theme level rather than baskets of small cap stocks in small cap funds, as the former is more controllable at his end.
He counselled his clients to stay away from small cap funds, but helped them invest and exit successfully from a range of thematic funds including PSUs, healthcare, infrastructure, US and China – to name a few. The core portfolio currently comprises large cap funds and he is yet not convinced to go down the cap scale as valuations are not yet attractive in his view.
He has been getting clients to invest steadily into gold and silver ETFs for last couple of years, unmindful of the low revenues his firm earns from these funds – a move that is working very well for his clients.
He and his team conduct weekly “Learning Saturday” webinars which cover diverse topics that clients and their friends can log into, learn from and interact with experts to get their queries addressed.
Communication on calls to action are broadcast to all clients using APIs with buttons to indicate whether they want to go ahead with a suggested decision or not. Those who wish to are then engaged with immediately for necessary portfolio action.
He and his team put out educational content everyday across social media channels, with messages tailored to diverse audiences including Gen Z, women etc.
He says scale is often seen as a tech-led solution, which misses the entire point of quality guidance being the primary role of the intermediary rather than only convenient access. He is building a retail model that puts high quality guidance at the forefront with tech as an enabler to deliver this proposition.