From customer acquisition to servicing, financial advisers have a lot to deal with. Acquiring clients is not a challenge. In the digital era, engaging them and creating a wow experience has become a necessity.
There is no dearth of courses offering technical skills for advisers. However, tackling problems faced in day-to-day practice is something advisers learn on the job. And most of it is trial and error. To fill this gap, a group of advisers and former fund professionals have set up a training institute called Financial Pathshala to share their collective wisdom with advisers.
The founders Alpa Shah, Dharmendra Satapathy, Rahul Banerjee, Vinayak Sapre and Usha Mallya have come together to offer training on topics ranging from public speaking, sales, client engagement, compliance, to mastering technology.
Vinayak Sapre, co-founder of Financial Pathshala calls it a finishing school for advisers. “The course covers every aspect of adviser’s business. Independent financial advisers today are competing with banks, robo advisers and national distributors that have the brand and reach. To overcome these challenges, they need to institutionalize their practice. Encouragingly, a lot of advisers are keen to grow and are investing in business and skill development,” says Vinayak. Their first batch has attracted advisers from Baroda, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Valsad, and Mumbai.
While the trend of coaching financial advisers is still nascent in India, it is a thriving business in developed markets. There are many firms and individual trainers like Stephen Wershing, Suzanne Muusers, CEG Worldwide LLC, Oechsli Institute, Peak Advisor Alliance, that provide customized coaching programmes for advisers.
The founders of Financial Pathshala see immense potential in this space. Industry experts believe that the demand for such trainings is only going to to increase due to lack of formal education and coaching available for financial advisers.
