the private wealth issue

the private wealth issue delivering wealth management Having decided which products & services will be offered and then done some high level marketing activities, private wealth firms deliver these services in a 'high touch' way - through very senior private bankers (PBs), wealth managers (WMs) and relationship managers (RMs). We now look at the 'final mile' - the sales, advice and relationship management processes of Indian private wealth firms.

the private wealth issue RELATIONSHIP MANAGERS LEARN TECHNICAL SKILLS ON THE JOB Wealth management firms have been lamenting the lack of talent for many years. When asked about the talent pipeline, most firms confirmed that they prefer to hire people with private wealth experience. Banks groom talent by lateral hires from retail (affluent) and corporate banking, which in turn hire MBA graduates. Relationship managers are then trained on-the-job, with some external input such as CIEL's wealth management program. Interestingly, banks or firms have not engaged with global specialist wealth management accreditation providers such as Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM), or even specialist investment accreditation providers such as the CFA Institute. The CFA Institute has been sharing that an increasing proportion of charter-holders of their flagship Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program work in wealth management. Even in India, the CFAI has been holding an annual wealth management conference for six years to engage with the wealth management community. SALES PROCESSES SEEM TO BE ABOUTTHE PITCH... Indeed, most wealth firms seemed to focus on the softer skills of sales and relationship management when hiring RMs. We couldn't find any client surveys of satisfaction levels in India, but there have been a few globallywith mixed feedback. In her book 'Wealth Management Unwrapped', veteran Charlotte B Beyer asks her high net worth investor readers to pretend that they are CEOs of their new company My Wealth, Inc and recall the worst sales pitches they have heard from wealth management firms. The book lists some pet peeves listed by investors she has worked with over manyyears.

Pet peeves of HNWI regarding their advisers the private wealth issue Fast talker, Confusing Product arrogant presentation focused, trying to sell me Saying \"trust me\" prematurely Disorganised Not on topic; Saying what they think I want to always hear instead of the truth (or what they really think) marketing! Who vs what: emphasis on the person's 25 years of experience, not substance; but what was the performance of this veteran? \"They're not Using guilt to accomplish their proactive; goal, not MINE \"You need to I have to do all understand the reality of markets, the reaching not just panic.\" \"Well, I can't stand out this anxiety about my money!\" Fees are Double talk, Treating me too high jargon as if I'm stupid They'd prefer After the honeymoon ends, not to talk to I'm taken for granted or ignored me but rather look at their Little interest in me or worse, too Bloomberg personal (a pretense not real) terminals Introduced to the \"name on the door\" once, and never saw them again

the private wealth issue ...AND ADVICE PROCESSES OFTEN HAVE COMMUNICATION GAPS In the book, she also highlighted that relationships between investors and their relationship managers break down quite often. She mentioned some common communication gaps, summarised in the graphic. Communication gaps between HNWI and their advisers WHAT INVESTORS NEVER TELL ADVISORS: 1. I can tell when you are nervous and totally uncertain of what you are telling me about the markets or your firm or my portfolio. 2. I can't understand - don't even enjoy reading - the volume of reports you send. 3. I spot it instantly when, someone on the team is not well respected by colleagues; the team is not congenial. I wonder why you bother bringing this person to the meeting at all, unless it's the boss! 4. I don't like whom you've assigned to work with me. I wish I could switch. 5. I wish you would talk less and listen more. You are boring. WHAT ADVISORS NEVER TELL INVESTORS: 1. I lose sleep, too, when your portfolio is losing money. 2. I wish I were not required to use my firm's back office for the reports we generate for you. Our technology is not so good. 3. Sometimes on bad days, I am just as uncertain as you are about the direction and safety of the markets. 4. My boss pressures me to sell you a number of products I don't really believe in. 5. Fees you pay me do not make me your personal concierge, expected to drop everything, including other clients, just to keep you happy. 6. Sometimes I wonder if you really listen to me, or do you just hear what you want to hear?

the private wealth issue FIRMS NOW REALISING VALUE OF SALES/ADVICE PROCESS Some private wealth firms have engaged specialist training providers. Carl Thong, group managing director of the Singapore-based Momenta group is such a trainer. Trained as a pastor himself, Thong admits that there was a time that he thought like many in the industry – which is that hard work and attitude are enough. Eventually he realised that “mindset is part of being coached and trained.” He now evangelises the value of training promising visible hard results i.e. increased sales, rather than just good feedback on his sessions. Momenta's sales training has a number of pillars – mindset, technical, habit-formation and instructional design. Thong believes it's important to customise the training to the firm's specific platform and that it is habit-forming. On customization, Thong said he would like to truly customise but ends up 'copy-pasting' or contextualizing to the private wealth firm's platform. He also believed that most firms don't allow enough time and cost for training to be habit-forming. So while his firm will take on 1-2 training workshops, he is honest enough to tell them it won't work. He tries to tell them that habits take a bit of time to form - “Role-playing is not enough…it's like swimming. You can't read about swimming. You need to drink some pool water before you learn to swim. Even then, swimming in a pool is different from swimming in a river or in the sea.” Having worked with some private wealth firms, and also some end-investors, Thong believes Indian prospects tend to pose transactional questions such as 'how much returns can you make' and 'will you offer a discount on the fees' but it's up to the RM to shift the conversation to a more strategic level. Carl Thong Group Managing Director Momenta Group Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue CRM TOOLS AND PROCESSES STILLWANTING Another area that wealth firms admit that they have some work to do is that of customer relationship management. In the sales/prospecting stage, some firms mentioned having a central research team to collate publicly available information on, and network links with, prospects. The rest is left up to relationship managers. Most firms did not appear to be aware of prospect databases such as Wealth-X (see box). Wealth-X, an information provider, suggests building an emotional connection and building a virtuous networking circle. The firm suggests some principles for every stage of the business development process - discovery, research and engagement. In the Discovery stage, the firm recommends treating every UHNW as a market segment of one. It reminds that the UHNW dismiss anyone who lacks preparation or shows a poor understanding of their needs, and that it takes patience to build a relationship with the wealthy compared to the mass market. Interestingly, Wealth-X claims that there are only two consistently proven ways to engage the UHNW segment - an introduction via trusted acquaintances and through the individuals' unique interests, passions and hobbies. So it recommends harnessing the power of referrals and passions. In the Research stage, the firm recommends screening existing client databases against the Wealth-X database to uncover prospects that wealth firms may already know. The firm's database also allows wealth managers to identify wealthy individuals connected to existing clients. In the Engagement stage, Wealth-X recommends a very exclusive and curated guest list for event-based marketing rather than the typical 'bring a friend along' approach that most wealth firms take. It also recommends that the invitees be carefully matched to their passions, and then the invitations be unique to stand out. The teams should be prepared to engage new invitees with conversations about their passions. Finally, there should be a follow-up strategy. While one can understand the lack of data on prospects, it was a bit surprising to hear of not having proper CRM for ongoing relationship management. This is an area worth exploring when discussing the role of technology in wealth management going forward.

the private wealth issue

firm profiles

Firm Profile - ASK Wealth Advisors the private wealth issue Firm Profile unapologetically conservative Launched in 2007, ASK Wealth Advisors about how strategic the wealth manage- CLIENTAND SERVICE SEGMENTATION (ASK WA) was part of the first wave of ment division to the group, Saluja called it launches of private wealth firms. 'the mother of all the businesses under Like most firms, new clients come mostly the ASK Group since that's where the through referrals. The central business The parent company, ASK Group had relationships lie.’ development team also helps in client started in the early 80s and formed a joint acquisition through referral programs, cold venture with US-based Raymond James in Saluja was bullish on the private wealth calling through the list of potential clients the 90s to offer investment management industry, saying it's still under-penetrated and sponsorship of relevant business services through a portfolio management because of high initial investment, long events. service (PMS) structure. By 2007, ASK group period of time to make it stable and high had decided to buy out the joint venture cost of relationship managers makes it Following the regulatory push to separate and launch the wealth management even more difficult to break even. distribution and advisory services, the firm, division. like many others, has formed a subsidiary to But he believes the client segment is offer the latter - While the group has expanded its asset expanding since there are many emerging management capabilities from the original entrepreneurs qualifying under the bracket • Private Wealth Management services - listed equities (PMS) to alternatives such as of HNIs and over the next 5 to 10 years not offering mutual funds and alternatives real estate and private equity, the wealth only there will be new players but also under distribution license. management business seems to have existing ones will do even better. grown slowly and consistently over the • Investment Advisory & ASK Family Office period. He reiterated the importance of capital in - offering asset allocation advisory this industry as the reason the firm had services under the RIA license. Rajesh Saluja, CEO & Managing Director, taken private equity capital from Advent ASK WA has been with the firm since International about five years ago, and is COACHING TAKES TIME TO BE EFFECTIVE inception. The rest of his management close to announcing another round of team has also been pretty stable. Asked capital raise soon. Saluja confirmed that their onboarding process is similar to industry practice of risk Rajesh Saluja CEO and Managing Director ASK Wealth Advisors Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - ASK Wealth Advisors Nishant Agarwal Managing Partner and Head - Family Office ASK Wealth Advisors Click here to watch full interview profiling although ideally he would like to is the philosophy of asset allocation” said on the experience of the manager and the conduct more systematic investing per- Nishant Agarwal, Managing Partner and institution behind the manager since sonality analysis. Head - Family Office. “clients will be connected to an institution and not to an individual or a face.” He agreed with academic literature about He described the process of strategic asset the client temperament being the most allocation with long-term risk and return He elaborated that 70 to 80% of investment important factor in their investing journey, expectation from each asset class and the recommendations are based on three but currently their team builds up that liquidity as the key aspects for framing a filters like the longevity of the firm, the knowledge of clients' temperament over client's portfolio. It is then overlaid with longevity of the product itself, and the four to five years. Only after that is the tactical asset allocation incorporating experience that the fund manager brings in relationship manager able to coach clients market valuations. that product. They keep 20 odd percent to about their own biases. give chances to new managers. The firm aims to provide the best-in-class Indeed, the RMs need to be coached products and services, as they believe in ASK WA is not known for 'innovation' in themselves to become better client the philosophy of 'owner-manager' frame- offering products. Agarwal explains that coaches. To that end, the firm has partnered work and operates independently with no this is intentional, saying “anything which is with a Singapore-based training firm to conflict with other businesses of the group. really too exotic wrapped in layers and provide sales and technical training over a layers of structuring is generally avoid- two-year period. Describing the product selection process, able... (prefer) something which has a Agarwal confirmed that a lot of weight is put longer term history and quality is intact.” SUPERVISED CONSERVATIVE ADVICE MODEL KEY STATS Rajesh Saluja, expertised in wealth and capital management business. The advice model is conservative with each CEO and Managing Director Somnath Mukherjee, expertised in client portfolio being supervised and wealth management, private monitored centrally with strong involve- Managing Partner and CIO banking and global markets across ment of the senior management (CEO / India and Singapore. COO / Advisory Head) in each relationship. Managing Partner and Nishant Agarwal, specialised in Driven by asset allocation principles, they Head - Family Office handling clients from India, Asia take a customer-centric approach rather and Europe than a product-centric one. As per FY 20-21 Total AUM USD 5.03 billion They aim to serve a niche clientele by Revenue USD 18.80 million maintaining personal touch and harnessing Cost to income ratio - deeper relationships through customised Number of RMs 53, of which 20 women solutions across investments, trust and estate planning. “The biggest framework which we follow for all investments and for client portfolios

Firm Profile - Axis Bank Burgundy Private the private wealth issue Firm Profile one axis - aligning bank and culture While late to the party, Krishnamurthy is division. It crossed more than INR 200,000 experience now in terms of what custo- upbeat about its progress and future crore under AUA which puts them at the top mers need to be cautious about, the legal prospects, citing 'One Axis' as its USP. of the table. protections that the customer should build and so on. Due to its various divisions - securities/ Describing their differentiation, investment banking, asset management Krishnamurthy mentions three funda- So, we help them on multiple faces,” said etc - being under one umbrella and control, mental blocks, calling it the three “Is”. The Krishnamurthy (while talking about the he feels Axis Bank is able to offer a much first is 'Intellect' where the acumen is to firm's expertise). more cohesive service to its affluent and identify who are the fund managers who HNW clients. have built a very strong track record over CONSERVATIVE INVESTMENT the years. PHILOSOPHY BURGUNDY - SINCERITYAND PRIVILEGE The second pillar is 'Integrity' as Axis Bank “We have a bit of a conservative bias; it Axis Bank restarted its affluent wealth has been a substantial player for the last 26 comes to the way we look at it. The good management division in 2014 with the years. The third pillar is around 'Innovation' part is that we are not just a bank at the appointment of Satheesh Krishnamurthy where they focus on helping the new group level we're also an investment bank and eventual launch of the Burgundy entrepreneurs. we also an asset management. We're also a brand with Deepika Padukone as brand NBFC, also a brokerage. So that allows us to ambassador. “Our clients should not be wasting time put our collective strength together. trying to discover these avenues. And the The brand 'Burgundy' reflects sincerity and biggest worry they have is they want to When it comes to evaluating, you know, privilege, hence the positioning that it's for work with a very trusted name, who can either developments in the market, or what the most privileged customers. Marketed really handhold them right and a large is happening to a particular asset,” said to the emerging affluent, Burgundy is institution like ours. If you're managing two Apurva Sahijwani, head of products & basically Axis Bank's affluent/wealth lakh crores of AUA, we have significant services. Satheesh Krishnamurthy CEO/Head of business Axis Bank Burgundy Private Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Axis Bank Burgundy Private Apurva Sahijwani CIO/Head, Products & Services Axis Bank Burgundy Private Click here to watch full interview BURGUNDY PRIVATE - COVID-TODDLER the pipeline team, and the ability to use terms of giving them the right solutions is ALREADY with large families that industrial houses very much there. So, the scalability that we profes-sionals who begin from those will see with a paradigm business like ours Axis launched its private banking division geographies and then engage with them in will be huge” said Sahijwani. as Burgundy Private in late 2019/early 2020 and has already crossed AUA of INR 50,000 KEY STATS Satheesh Krishnamurthy crores. Apurva Sahijwani CEO/Head of business approx 100 Krishnamurthy confirmed the division has USD 8.6 Bln (INR 63, 372 crores) essentially grown through COVID, and CIO/Head, Products & Services 0 currently manages over 1600 families.. .”out USD 54.2 mn (INR 402 crores) of the top Forbes 100, almost 24 of these Number of RMs families are with us.” Assets under Advice “We have a very strong reach, but our private client's business has now expanded Revenue to 26 cities across the length and breadth of From mutual funds the country...so today, even in smaller markets. Today we have our presence of

Firm Profile - Centrum Wealth Management the private wealth issue Firm Profile centrum of a growing empire? Founded in 1997, Centrum had grown to be a leader, nor carved a niche. With a solutions oriented approach, we a respected financial services group, with constantly strive to deliver on customer diversified fee businesses and a rapidly Will the group's expansion plans jolt the needs and requirements on the back of growing lending platform for institutions wealth division to get some momentum both our proven in-house strengths and and individuals. remains to be seen and is today a mid-sized capabilities as also leveraging our long- firm, aiming to carve a niche for itself with a standing and valuable professional About five years ago, Jaspal Bindra joined boutique mindset and open architecture partnerships and associations”, she says. the group as executive chairman and platform. investor, bringing with him decades of OPEN ARCHITECTURE INVESTMENT experience having built the Standard FOCUS ON WEALTH PLANNING PHILOSOPHY Chartered Bank in Asia. Centrum Wealth is a full service firm and Like most firms in the industry, Centrum Under his leadership, the Centrum group offers the entire range of products and claims an open architecture approach has diversified its operations to a fee-cum- services - investment services, wealth though Vinay maintains that it is the “only lending model with the introduction of planning and lending - to a broad spectrum company who puts up the outside housing finance, SME & microfinance of clients in its target audience - emerging boundary on what you can allocate to the businesses. The group is poised to add a high net worth individuals, single family clients from manufactured products. small finance bank with the acquisition of offices and corporate treasuries. the beleaguered PMC Bank. I don't think when you profess to be an Arpita Vinay, co-head of Centrum Wealth, investment advisor for the client the Centrum Wealth was launched in 2011 likes to lead with wealth planning services. distribution arm for your manufacturing when a team of professionals joined from “We have consciously invested in and capability is the way to go and it requires HSBC's wealth management division. It's developed credible proficiencies in adja- some amount of intellectual humility to grown steadily to maintain a respectable cent areas like taxation support, estate and accept that.” position in the top 10 with about 110 RMs succession planning, family-business and USD 4b in AUA, but neither scaled to be advisory and offshore. The firm claims to cap the internal Arpita Vinay Co-Head and Whole Time Director Centrum Wealth Management

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Centrum Wealth Management manufacturing at around 30 percent even With this orientation, we came together are typical to entrepreneurial energy.” though the group has acknowledged and have been able to engineer a platform expertise. that blends very well, the processes and She adds that the firm firmly believes in controls (which the core team members maintaining an open and transparent TEAM APPROACH have imbibed and worked with in their communication with clients. This she previous roles and that underpin the believes has greatly helped to build trust The Centrum team is split between product solidity of large organizations) and at the and credibility, better informed portfolio and domain specialists and relationship same time the platform is nimble, decisions for clients and a well-balanced management. Every client has a strong responsive and contemporary - traits that approach to client engagement. overlay of both the relationship manage- ment hierarchy as also domain and KEY STATS Arpita Vinay product specialists depending upon the S Ganashyam engagement with the customer and the Co-Head and Whole Time Director $ 4 Bln (INR 30,000 Cr) customer portfolio. $ 20 Mn (INR 150 Cr) Co-Head and Whole Time Director 110 VALUE PROPOSITION AUA When asked about the firm's value proposition, Arpita Vinay pitches “We have Top Line always focused on building a boutique platform around client requirements and Number of RMs more importantly we did not want to be product-led or take a one size fits all sort of an approach. “THE FIRM FIRMLY BELIEVES IN “ MAINTAINING AN OPEN AND TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS.

Firm Profile - Edelweiss Private Wealth the private wealth issue Firm Profile edel-“wiser” than all Established in 2010, Edelweiss Private back as a gift to their beloved, signifying shall play out over the course of the next Wealth was a step behind some of its deep love and devotion). decade and what will benefit the clients counterparts which started in 2007. But it in generating maximum returns on their has made up for lost ground by growing Edelweiss has its own broking firm, portfolios. faster than almost all its competitors. At an research, financing arm, investment bank- AUA figure of USD 15 billion, it's among the ing which can help the clients and M & As, • The second format is the advisory top three in the industry. In 2020, private institutional equity arm that could assist the format in which the IPS model is equity firm PAG acquired a ~38.5% stake in customers in raising capital whether it be followed where the firm has confidence Edelweiss Private Wealth with the option to on the debt side or the equity side and in setting out the investment policy increase it further to up to ~44%. insurance within the group which can help statement for the customer, illuminating the clients address insurance related the do's and don'ts and the dangers that PARENT'S AGGRESSIVE CULTURE problems not only for their personal life, but the customer is prepared to take and also general insurance for the employees. what his return assumption is. Founded in 1995 as an investment bank, the parent Edelweiss Capital has grown into a JOURNEY FROM DISTRIBUTION TO • The third practice is of the family office diversified financial services firm with over ADVISORYTO DISCRETIONARY where the client has appointed the 40 lines of businesses grouped together in company as his family office guy so the 4 broad businesses - Credit including The firm offers four formats for engage- firm has a 360 degree view of the Housing Finance, Financial Markets, Asset ment, representing all different stages of portfolio. Management, Commodities and Insurance. evolutions of the wealth management market - • The fourth and the latest thing It appears the founders have a love and dispatched is the discretionary factor devotion for growth, a far cry from the • First one is the distribution format where called Infinity. Thus, the customer can German white flower, after which the firm the good products are showcased from connect with the firm on the Infinity was named. (According to legend, suitors time to time, underlying trends are stage where he gets the capacity to would climb the Alps and bring edelweiss identified, decisions regarding what have the institutional counsel coming to Saurabh Rungta Head of Products & Services Edelweiss Private Wealth Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Edelweiss Private Wealth him bundled in a short-sighted way, in For what time period has the manager been is the problem of the client you're solving. the most expense proficient model with running the portfolio, and the company How are you going to solve that problem, thorough, hazard the board controls tends to take the monthly or the quarterly prove that you're not going to take being set up. snapshots. excessive risks to generate the returns that you're promising? And lastly, to A major initiative that saw the light of day The company goes through the newsletter differentiate yourself from the peers who in 2019 is the new and trend-setting of past three years or four years of these are already offering similar products” said Edelweiss 'Infinity' offering, which is a fund managers and tries to understand Rungta. digital, flat fee platform solution aimed at what was the call that the fund manager cutting the costs of wealth management had really spelled out in his newsletter at CATERING TO THE FUTURE services by up to 25%. various points in time and how has he played that in those calls in his portfolio. “Over the course of the last decade we “Infinity is at the cutting edge of our aim to have come across numerous families be a one-of-a-kind wealth management “The most important thing is you need to where the patriarch has encouraged their solution, and to do so we began with identify what problem of the client you're better halves to also form part of the listening, then offering unbiased advice, trying to solve. What asset or what part of decision making, as well as they have unbiased products. his wallet are you wanting to target? You started getting the younger generation, on have to clearly spell it out. And once you to the decision table, quite early so that This is why we created our Infinity offering, spell that out, you have to clearly lay down they start understanding the basic roots of designed to provide a holistic perspective the strategy how you will achieve it. What what is resulting into a financial decision and numerous possibilities rather than just risk are you going to take to generate the making. offering a series of products that purpor- return that you're promising that you will be tedly added up to a portfolio,” said Anshu able to achieve? So, especially when the younger genera- Kapoor, the previous Head of Private tions tend to come in we have seen that the Wealth Management in 2020. And the last piece, once you have clearly ability to take risks tends to increase.” said framed this figure out who are the players in Saurabh Rungta (Managing partner and INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY CATERS TO the market who are already offering this. CIO). As mentioned earlier, Edelweiss now SEPARATING RISK Are you just a me-too to them, or do you has its own part owner PAG which enables really have a distinguished feature the firm to have access to its international Edelweiss sensitize clients to primarily 3 philosophy strategy, which will stand out counter-parts a lot more easier because types of risk and have in-built robust, time over the course of a period of time. the firm will take the benefit of the tested, quality processes to manage them. international experience that its partners Product risk or the danger of recom- So, you have to really meet this entire bring on the table and it also helps to mending the inappropriate product is framework, you have to clearly define what strengthen the firm's balance sheet. minimized by a thorough understanding of the client's needs. The client experiences KEY STATS Nitin Jain innovation at various levels of interactions, like, reporting new age product design and CEO Alok Goyal various customized solutions. Head of private wealth management Saurabh Rungta “We would like to always take contrarian calls in the extreme so we don't believe in Head of products & services 151 the huge amount of trading and churning in our clients portfolio. But when there are Number of RMs $15.6 billion extremes, we would like to take the contrarian call so that we can add that as Assets under advice 11.96 the percent of alpha to appliance portfolios.” said Saurabh Rungta, CIO. Revenue 49.25% While researching on the portfolio both Cost to income ratio quantitative as well as qualitative filters are used. In the quantitative piece, the history of the portfolio is taken into consideration.

Firm Profile - ICICI Securities Private Wealth the private wealth issue Firm Profile I see, i see, aye, the wealth increasing \"We are a specialist team. So, in a broad Private Bank - HNWIs” by Asset AAA Private video call or over a call who service their philosophical way if we were to look at, in a Capital Awards 2021, “Best private bank for clients. bank setup, obviously it's a far more general self-directed investments - Asia” by PWM approach to doing wealth management Wealth Tech Awards 2021, “Best Customer ICICI Securities has always been bullish on versus a Securities Company, who does Experience of the Year” by ETBFSI digital. That push has only intensified investments” said Anupam Guha, head of Excellence Awards, 2020 among the recent during Covid times. So nowadays, private wealth. ones. customers can open accounts on ICICI Direct and do a top-up in their PMS online. As one of two private wealth brands within BULLISH ON DIGITAL At one point of time, these processes took the ICICI Bank, ICICI Securities' value 30 signatures. proposition is that it is the investment While the firm has more than 300 specialist, while it sees the bank's private relationship managers (out of overall team Similarly, its e-ATM product allows wealth division catering more to banking strength of 500), the RM-to-client ratio customers to get instant liquidity (30 needs. Started in 2010 to cater to the well- math doesn't seem to work. But Guha minutes) after selling shares compared to heeled amongst its broking clients, ICICI clarifies that this is because many clients the usual practice of waiting for days. Securities Private Wealth has grown are DIY, supporting the strength of the significantly with 54,000 clients and over firm's brand and value proposition. In another innovation, the firm has INR 2 trillion in AUA (as on 30 Jun 2021). launched its 'Prime' subscription model. ICICI Securities provides a digital wealth Similar to Amazon Prime, the subscription The home grown wealth outfit of ICICI management experience through ICICI bundles a number of services including its Securities continues to be a well- direct and two specialized mobile prized research. Guha confirms that this recognized player in Indian wealth applications - Markets & Money. At the innovation has allowed the firm to compete management scene - featuring in top 5 same time, following anomni-channel with discount brokers as “clients come to us according to Asian Private Banker AUM delivery model, the firm also makes good for value, and just not on discounting.” league table of 2020. The team has use of 'digital assistance' - basically RM and received a slew of awards including “Best customer support on voice, either on a Being able to buy overseas stocks within Anupam Guha Head of Business ICICI Securities Private Wealth Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - ICICI Securities Private Wealth Bharat Pareek Head of Product ICICI Securities Private Wealth Click here to watch full interview the same sign-on is another product that's external advisers. 'Masters of the Street' investors such as 'factor investing' such as been well received. “We were perceived as features India's leading fund managers and low volatility factors as well as 'multi-asset' a high brokerage company at one point of investment advisers allowing investors to through a portfolio of stocks and ETFs. time, but with a slew of new, innovative diversify across multiple unique ideas and parts that have come in, I think now we are investment philosophies. These are available both as discretionary as competitive as anybody in the market. and non-discretionary managed accounts Our full stack of products and solutions Similarly, it has a number of portfolios that as many clients like “a consultative coupled with the ability to hyper- package trends that appeal to HNW approach to portfolio building.” personalize the digital journey of our clients makes us unique among competition.” said KEY STATS Vijay chandok Guha. Anupam Guha CEO Bharat Pareek PACKAGING INVESTMENT EXPERTISE 2.1 million Head of business 53% ICICI Securities has packaged its own research through the launch of 'Premium Head of product Portfolios' - model portfolios of stocks for clients who appreciate some investment Total revenue management expertise, but prefer transacting and holding the stocks digitally. Cost to income It has also launched a similar product with

Firm Profile - InCred Wealth the private wealth issue Firm Profile incredible vision for growth InCred Wealth is part of the InCred financial PLATFORM FOR GLOBAL INDIAN HNI Products and services offered by InCred services platform that aims to leverage Wealth include- technology and data-science to ease many The firm is aimed at Indians globally, pain-points and disrupt many segments. focused on bringing international stan- • Investment solutions across equity, fixed The group founder, Bhupinder Singh, has dards of wealth and investment solutions income and alternatives been an investment banker with Deutsche while being firmly rooted in the local Indian Bank for more than 15 years. ethos. • A sophisticated technology platform for advanced portfolio monitoring He set up an NBFC, InCred Finance in 2016 The core target segment is HNI and UHNI with the backing of an ex-colleague, Anshu clients in India as well as abroad who apart • Financing solutions Jain and other investors such as Ranjan Pai, from having access to traditional products • Estate Planning services and institutional investors such as KKR, will also appreciate having access to • Investment Banking solutions (through ADIA etc. investment products across the risk spectrum and futuristic avenues. InCred Capital) Singh is now expanding the group with • Equity Research & Broking (through other types of financial services including The firm realises that there is a saturated private wealth management and asset market with a lot of wealth managers, InCred Equities) management. servicing a lot of existing investors but there is a whole untapped market of HNI/UHNI TECHNOLOGY ENABLER FOR Nitin Rao, CEO of InCred Wealth, says that investor base which is coming to the market AGGREGATION the group's vision is not the typical wealth for the first time. Social media has proved to management vision of distribution but play well for the customer as well as the Rao believes in a hybrid model using involves technology, product expertise, team. They also believe in investing for the technology to enable the customer to view international network and integration with emerging rich and millennials HNI as a big aggregated portfolios themselves but also funds management. opportunity. to enable the relationship manager to serve them better. ‘Aggregated views across product types and asset classes is still one of the major Nitin Rao CEO InCred Wealth Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - InCred Wealth challenges in India…and it will take time to cited the example of companies that can diligence on the basis of whether the bridge this gap’ he said. easily give 3-4% higher returns than InCred group would invest its own money conventional debt, yet are rated AA or A; his while the second part of due diligence is its The firm has eschewed cookie-cutter firm believes in designing debt products suitability of inhouse grids and matrices, solutions in favour of highly customised around these market pricings. which decides the correct fund for a solutions that are tailor-made to meet the specific investor. financial requirements of the clients. Similarly, in equities, the firm can design Ownership, transparency and passion are ‘futuristic’ themes such as neo banks, Rao believes the firm can add 2-3% alpha values they stand by. edtech, pharma etc which can result in over actual current investment practices investment alpha. The product team, such as mutual funds as opposed to The strengths of the company are a wide currently of 10 people, conducts due benchmarks. research-backedand innovative product suite, a robust technology platform, KEY STATS Nitin Rao synergies of their diversified financial services group and a top-notch expe- CEO Yogesh Kalwani rienced team. Head, Investments 76 VALUE PROPOSITION WILL SHOW IN INVESTMENT ALPHA Number of RMs USD 1 bn (INR 7,500 crores) Rao confirmed the value of ethics and due Assets under Advice not available diligence in the product selection process. This becomes important as the firm Revenue focuses on products that can deliver alpha beyond mutual funds. As an example, Rao “THE FIRM CAN ADD 2-3% ALPHA OVER “ ACTUAL CURRENT INVESTMENT PRACTICES SUCH AS MUTUAL FUNDS AS OPPOSED TO BENCHMARKS.

Firm Profile - Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management the private wealth issue Firm Profile leveraging equities expertise “Every firm has a core branding in the minds higher end inheritors and self-made tech that have been researched keeping of its customers. And at Motilal Oswal, we entrepreneurs. But they seemed to have the clients in the centre of every have been known for our equity progress found their niche in the first segment which recommendation. and equity expertise that we've built over is the salaried professionals and the small years” says Ashish Shanker, head of Motilal to medium sized entrepreneurs. The Investment Committee includes Oswal Private Wealth. experts from across the group. The firm has built a team approach - Launched in 2007 alongside many of its “We have a seasoned professional who In case of equities, the firm strongly peers, the private wealth firm has built a works with clients to help them on their believes that from a longer-term wealth reasonable offering and client assets succession, a real estate expert who helps creation point of view, managed products around this core expertise. clients with their direct real estate needs, a are better, whether actively or passively- very strong product and research team for managed. They believe that a client trying CATERING TO SALARIED CXOS WITH A wealth management, an analytics team to buy stocks himself directly, without the TEAM OFFER which works on client portfolios to give adequate knowledge or the time to study them insights on how the money can be those businesses, is very inefficient. Like many other firms, MOPWM segments managed better” says Asish Shanker, newly prospective clients into broad groups. appointed managing director of Motilal For active managers, there is a philosophy Interestingly its segmentation in salaried Oswal Private Wealth Management. called 4Cs, where they try to understand CXOs, SME owners and independent the philosophy of the fund manager, professionals (salaried segment having RESEARCH-DRIVEN INVESTMENT whether he has 'Clarity of philosophy', portfolio of INR 25 lakhs to 2.5 crores, small PHILOSOPHY 'Consistency of performance' because the and medium business people with INR 3 to findings tell them that most fund managers 100 crores and ultra HNIs like athletes with The 20+ member product and research who are best performing on the last three- INR 100+ crore portfolio) leaves out the advisory team identifies simple products or five-year basis, invariably tend to Ashish Shanker MD and CEO, MOPW Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management underperform in the next three to five years. long-term objectives. clients are looking for growth, then there MOPWM uses alternative investments like are hedge funds used too. The basic idea is Apart from looking at the performance, private equity and venture capital for when to reduce the correlation to the core they also spend a lot of time understanding portfolio. the philosophy, the process, the 'Capability,' KEY STATS and what is the experience in the fund Asish Shanker manager so that the portfolio of super fund MD and CEO, MOPW 122 managers can be built and spoken to over Number of RMs $3.4 billion time. Assets under advice The portfolios are kept simple and at the minimum possible risk. They have essen- tially a core-and-satellite approach where 70-80% of the portfolio is designed in a manner that it is set to deliver returns on the “EVERY FIRM HAS A CORE BRANDING IN “ THE MINDS OF ITS CUSTOMERS. AND AT MOTILAL OSWAL, WE HAVE BEEN KNOWN FOR OUR EQUITY PROGRESS AND EQUITY EXPERTISE THAT WE'VE BUILT OVER YEARS.

Firm Profile - Waterfield Advisors the private wealth issue Firm Profile pioneering family office advisory Launched in 2011, Waterfield Advisors was Dalmia of Dalmia group holdings. The partnership will also seek to advise neither the first multi-family office, nor was international family offices on their India it the first to operate on a fee-based The company said the freshly infused allocations. investment advisory business model. capital will be used to augment the However, it appears it was the first to advisory platform, acquire high-quality BUILDING INVESTMENT EXPERTISE combine the two concepts and scale it to talent, build client-centric technology the largest true multi-family office in the enablers, and power global expansion. The firm built a sizable investment team country. headed by Munish Randev until about 18 The firm managed to garner decent AUA months ago. Now it has a dual head of Until then, the so-called family offices spread across 70-80 families. investments model - Nimish Shah for services were really wealth management traditional investments and x for alternative services, still using commission-driven Size of team - 60..check turnover investments. business models. why do they have AMFI registration? OVERSEAS EXPANSION THROUGH Talking about the investment philosophy, PARTNERSHIP Nimish Shah said “we first look at their risk Started by veteran private banker, Soumya pool allocations, and then look at the asset Rajan, with silent partner Sanjay Teli, the Waterfield Advisors has partnered with allocation matter on a holistic level”. firm took a strategic investment by the Patni New York-based Zephyr to help ultra HNIs family early on. to diversify portfolios across global asset He elaborated once the strategic objec- classes. tives are set they give importance to the In late 2019, a news report stated that it had tactical aspect by taking tactical calls raised $6 million in a fresh equity funding The new platform will allow investors depending on the market movements, round, led by a consortium of investors access to a diverse class of products across whether it is within equity, within asset including New York-based Zephyr mana- the world in public and private markets, classes because that is what will make the gement LP, TVS Capital Fund and Gaurav both the companies said in a news report. subtle difference to the portfolio and the Nimish Shah CIO Waterfield Advisors Click here to watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Waterfield Advisors returns there on. They also add gold and private equity and venture capital funds. Investment (PRI). PRI is recognised as the overseas assets as an important part of leading global network of firms who are their client's portfolio. In another first, Waterfield aims to help committed to integrating ESG conside- clients to allocate capital in a manner that rations into their investment practices and Describing the process of selecting funds, fully optimises the opportunities and ownership policies. Shah mentioned that they have a yearly minimizes the risks to various environ- qualitative questionnaire which goes out mental, social and governance (ESG) PHILANTHROPY AS MORE THAN to all asset management companies which factors. ENGAGEMENT helps them to understand the overall fund management and their consistency in what It is the first advisory firm in Asia to become Waterfield stresses on offering philan- they are delivering. a signatory of the United Nations- thropic advice as a key part of their supported Principles for Responsible service offer. Besides factor analysis, they also look at the attribution and contribution analysis by KEY STATS Soumya Rajan using artificial intelligence models where they are tied up with those companies CEO Nimish Shah which helps them to know which groups are sensitive as of now and which CIO 30? check companies to probably put under watch. Number of RMs $3.6 billion Backing its conviction in fund selection, especially in alternatives, Waterfield Assets under advice Advisors recently raised $100 million in a fund-of-funds (FoF) AIF from Indian family offices, which will invest in homegrown “WE FIRST LOOK AT THEIR RISK POOL “ ALLOCATIONS, AND THEN LOOK AT THE ASSET ALLOCATION MATTER ON A HOLISTIC LEVEL.

the private wealth issue

a publication Money Management India For more information about Hamam House, Fort, Mumbai Money Management India please visit: [email protected] www.moneymanagementindia.net +91 932 611 3069 © Money Management India, 2021.

Firm Profile - InCred Wealth the private wealth issue Firm Profile incredible vision for growth InCred Wealth is part of the InCred financial PLATFORM FOR GLOBAL INDIAN HNI Products and services offered by InCred services platform that aims to leverage Wealth include- technology and data-science to ease many The firm is aimed at Indians globally, pain-points and disrupt many segments. focused on bringing international stan- • Investment solutions across equity, fixed The group founder, Bhupinder Singh, has dards of wealth and investment solutions income and alternatives been an investment banker with Deutsche while being firmly rooted in the local Indian Bank for more than 15 years. ethos. • A sophisticated technology platform for advanced portfolio monitoring He set up an NBFC, InCred Finance in 2016 The core target segment is HNI and UHNI with the backing of an ex-colleague, Anshu clients in India as well as abroad who apart • Financing solutions Jain and other investors such as Ranjan Pai, from having access to traditional products • Estate Planning services and institutional investors such as KKR, will also appreciate having access to • Investment Banking solutions (through ADIA etc. investment products across the risk spectrum and futuristic avenues. InCred Capital) Singh is now expanding the group with • Equity Research & Broking (through other types of financial services including The firm realises that there is a saturated private wealth management and asset market with a lot of wealth managers, InCred Equities) management. servicing a lot of existing investors but there is a whole untapped market of HNI/UHNI TECHNOLOGY ENABLER FOR Nitin Rao, CEO of InCred Wealth, says that investor base which is coming to the market AGGREGATION the group's vision is not the typical wealth for the first time. Social media has proved to management vision of distribution but play well for the customer as well as the Rao believes in a hybrid model using involves technology, product expertise, team. They also believe in investing for the technology to enable the customer to view international network and integration with emerging rich and millennials HNI as a big aggregated portfolios themselves but also funds management. opportunity. to enable the relationship manager to serve them better. ‘Aggregated views across product types and asset classes is still one of the major Nitin Rao 75 CEO InCred Wealth Watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - InCred Wealth challenges in India…and it will take time to focuses on products that can deliver alpha currently of 10 people, conducts due bridge this gap’ he said. beyond mutual funds. As an example, Rao diligence on the basis of whether the cited the example of companies that can InCred group would invest its own money The firm has eschewed cookie-cutter easily give 3-4% higher returns than while the second part of due diligence is its solutions in favour of highly customised conventional debt, yet are rated AA or A; his suitability of inhouse grids and matrices, solutions that are tailor-made to meet the firm believes in designing debt products which decides the correct fund for a financial requirements of the clients. around these market pricings. specific investor. Ownership, transparency and passion are values they stand by. Similarly, in equities, the firm can design Rao believes the firm can add 2-3% alpha ‘futuristic’ themes such as neo banks, over actual current investment practices The strengths of the company are a wide edtech, pharma etc which can result in such as mutual funds as opposed to research-backedand innovative product investment alpha. The product team, benchmarks. suite, a robust technology platform, synergies of their diversified financial KEY STATS Nitin Rao services group and a top-notch expe- rienced team. CEO Yogesh Kalwani VALUE PROPOSITION WILL SHOW IN Head, Investments 76 INVESTMENT ALPHA Number of RMs Rao confirmed the value of ethics and due diligence in the product selection process. This becomes important as the firm “THE FIRM CAN ADD 2-3% ALPHA OVER “ ACTUAL CURRENT INVESTMENT PRACTICES SUCH AS MUTUAL FUNDS AS OPPOSED TO BENCHMARKS. 76

Firm Profile - Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management the private wealth issue Firm Profile leveraging equities expertise “Every firm has a core branding in the minds higher end inheritors and self-made tech that have been researched keeping of its customers. And at Motilal Oswal, we entrepreneurs. But they seemed to have the clients in the centre of every have been known for our equity progress found their niche in the first segment which recommendation. and equity expertise that we've built over is the salaried professionals and the small years” says Ashish Shanker, head of Motilal to medium sized entrepreneurs. The Investment Committee includes Oswal Private Wealth. experts from across the group. The firm has built a team approach - Launched in 2007 alongside many of its “We have a seasoned professional who In case of equities, the firm strongly peers, the private wealth firm has built a works with clients to help them on their believes that from a longer-term wealth reasonable offering and client assets succession, a real estate expert who helps creation point of view, managed products around this core expertise. clients with their direct real estate needs, a are better, whether actively or passively- very strong product and research team for managed. They believe that a client trying CATERING TO SALARIED CXOS WITH A wealth management, an analytics team to buy stocks himself directly, without the TEAM OFFER which works on client portfolios to give adequate knowledge or the time to study them insights on how the money can be those businesses, is very inefficient. Like many other firms, MOPWM segments managed better” says Asish Shanker, newly prospective clients into broad groups. appointed managing director of Motilal For active managers, there is a philosophy Interestingly its segmentation in salaried Oswal Private Wealth Management. called 4Cs, where they try to understand CXOs, SME owners and independent the philosophy of the fund manager, professionals (salaried segment having RESEARCH-DRIVEN INVESTMENT whether he has 'Clarity of philosophy', portfolio of INR 25 lakhs to 2.5 crores, small PHILOSOPHY 'Consistency of performance' because the and medium business people with INR 3 to findings tell them that most fund managers 100 crores and ultra HNIs like athletes with The 20+ member product and research who are best performing on the last three- INR 100+ crore portfolio) leaves out the advisory team identifies simple products or five-year basis, invariably tend to Ashish Shanker 77 MD and CEO, MOPW Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management Watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Motilal Oswal Private Wealth Management underperform in the next three to five years. 70-80% of the portfolio is designed in a private equity and venture capital for when manner that it is set to deliver returns on the clients are looking for growth, then there Apart from looking at the performance, long-term objectives. are hedge funds used too. The basic idea is they also spend a lot of time understanding MOPWM uses alternative investments like to reduce the correlation to the core the philosophy, the process, the 'Capability,' portfolio. and what is the experience in the fund KEY STATS manager so that the portfolio of super fund Asish Shanker managers can be built and spoken to over MD and CEO, MOPW 122 time. Number of RMs The portfolios are kept simple and at the minimum possible risk. They have essen- tially a core-and-satellite approach where “EVERY FIRM HAS A CORE BRANDING IN “ THE MINDS OF ITS CUSTOMERS. AND AT MOTILAL OSWAL, WE HAVE BEEN KNOWN FOR OUR EQUITY PROGRESS AND EQUITY EXPERTISE THAT WE'VE BUILT OVER YEARS. 78

Firm Profile - Waterfield Advisors the private wealth issue Firm Profile pioneering family office advisory Launched in 2011, Waterfield Advisors was Dalmia of Dalmia group holdings. The partnership will also seek to advise neither the first multi-family office, nor was international family offices on their India it the first to operate on a fee-based The company said the freshly infused allocations. investment advisory business model. capital will be used to augment the However, it appears it was the first to advisory platform, acquire high-quality BUILDING INVESTMENT EXPERTISE combine the two concepts and scale it to talent, build client-centric technology the largest true multi-family office in the enablers, and power global expansion. The firm built a sizable investment team country. headed by Munish Randev until about 18 The firm managed to garner decent AUA months ago. Now it has a dual head of Until then, the so-called family offices spread across 70-80 families. investments model - Nimish Shah for services were really wealth management traditional investments and x for alternative services, still using commission-driven Size of team - 60..check turnover investments. business models. why do they have AMFI registration? OVERSEAS EXPANSION THROUGH Talking about the investment philosophy, PARTNERSHIP Nimish Shah said “we first look at their risk Started by veteran private banker, Soumya pool allocations, and then look at the asset Rajan, with silent partner Sanjay Teli, the Waterfield Advisors has partnered with allocation matter on a holistic level”. firm took a strategic investment by the Patni New York-based Zephyr to help ultra HNIs family early on. to diversify portfolios across global asset He elaborated once the strategic objec- classes. tives are set they give importance to the In late 2019, a news report stated that it had tactical aspect by taking tactical calls raised $6 million in a fresh equity funding The new platform will allow investors depending on the market movements, round, led by a consortium of investors access to a diverse class of products across whether it is within equity, within asset including New York-based Zephyr mana- the world in public and private markets, classes because that is what will make the gement LP, TVS Capital Fund and Gaurav both the companies said in a news report. subtle difference to the portfolio and the Nimish Shah 79 CIO Waterfield Advisors Watch full interview

the private wealth issue Firm Profile - Waterfield Advisors returns there on. They also add gold and fund-of-funds (FoF) AIF from Indian family supported Principles for Responsible overseas assets as an important part of offices, which will invest in homegrown Investment (PRI). PRI is recognised as the their client's portfolio. private equity and venture capital funds. leading global network of firms who are committed to integrating ESG conside- Describing the process of selecting funds, In another first, Waterfield aims to help rations into their investment practices and Shah mentioned that they have a yearly clients to allocate capital in a manner that ownership policies. qualitative questionnaire which goes out fully optimises the opportunities and to all asset management companies which minimizes the risks to various environ- PHILANTHROPY AS MORE THAN helps them to understand the overall fund mental, social and governance (ESG) ENGAGEMENT management and their consistency in what factors. they are delivering. Waterfield stresses on offering philan- It is the first advisory firm in Asia to become thropic advice as a key part of their Besides factor analysis, they also look at a signatory of the United Nations- service offer. the attribution and contribution analysis by using artificial intelligence models where KEY STATS Soumya Rajan they are tied up with those companies which helps them to know which groups CEO Nimish Shah are sensitive as of now and which companies to probably put under watch. CIO 30 Backing its conviction in fund selection, Number of RMs especially in alternatives, Waterfield Advisors recently raised $100 million in a “WE FIRST LOOK AT THEIR RISK POOL “ ALLOCATIONS, AND THEN LOOK AT THE ASSET ALLOCATION MATTER ON A HOLISTIC LEVEL. 80

the private wealth issue partner with MMI While our website will be updated continuously, every 2-3 months, we will pull together content on a particular topic or issue into a 'compendium'. Like this one. We intend to publish 'the issue' on - • Capital markets (MF and PMS) • Real estate • Venture capital and private equity • Debt and infrastructure • Liquid alternatives • FinTech FORMATS The issues series will be available as - • Print - likely to be 60-80 pages, the print version will be delivered to senior management of leading asset & wealth management firms. • Video showcase - the full interviews will be available on our vimeo showcase page on that topic • Social media - shareable snippets of the video interviews and articles will be shared on social media (LinkedIn, twitter and facebook) SPONSORSHIP Selected firms can sponsor one or more of the issues series, with packages starting at INR 3 lakhs (exclusive of GST). Email your topic preference to [email protected].

a publication Money Management India For more information about Hamam House, Fort, Mumbai Money Management India please visit: [email protected] www.moneymanagementindia.net +91 932 611 3069 © Money Management India, 2021.