After more than a decade stint managing high-net-worth individual clients at banks, Apurva Singhi decided to strike out on his own to provide a more holistic solution to clients. He founded Siddhanam Capital in 2021 which caters to the evolving goals of high-net-worth individuals. Apurva chats with Morningstar about how he is catering to this niche.
You have worked with banks where you handled HNI clients. What inspired you to start your own practice? How has been the journey so far?
I have worked with three banks over my 11 years of career managing HNI clients. At each of these places, I got inspiring mentors where I learned the nuts and bolts of running this business. What differentiated me from other colleagues was my continuous learning process even while having comfortable jobs. And I’m still learning! I had handsome pay and lots of support before starting on my own. There were certain gaps that banks could not fill in their pursuit of profits. To fill this gap, I started Siddhanam Capital.
Over the next decade, India will have a plethora of professional wealth management firms that would bring the best of the agent+banks+distributor+advisory that would offer both execution and RIA services and we would like to be a part of that growth story.
We at Siddhanam Capital follow an in-house TIRS Model – Transparency, Integrity, Research, and Service that allow us to offer the client one of the best execution experiences from any part of the globe. This garners the trust which is the most important commodity of our business.
You have been working with HNIs for over a decade. How have their aspirations and goals evolved over the years and how are you catering to them?
My career transition has been in the most important decade that had played out where investors matured from Fixed Deposit (FD) to products like mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services (PMS).
Due to information overload, HNIs are conscious of costs. The risk appetite has increased over a period. They are getting comfortable with new-age innovations – buying international equity & ETFs (part to mitigate the currency and country risk), structured products, Peer 2 Peer (P2P) Lending. Start-ups are another flavour where they want to park their risk capital
They don’t want to put their all eggs in one basket and prefer a multi-asset model which is well diversified.
After Covid, the conversation has been moved from nomination to creation of Wills as they are getting more conscious of how money should be distributed and managed post their absence.
We have been filtering out the best managers and platforms in their respective domains to offer such services to our clients. We have tied up with Kristal.ai, Globalise, AK Capital, Liquiloans, and Morningstar Managed Portfolios for our distribution kitty part from Mutual Fund, PMS, and AIF houses.
What kind of challenges did you face when it comes to portfolio management and how has outsourcing investment management helped you in your practice?
One thing I learned from Bank as a financial distributor was to optimise your time. Instead of me reinventing the wheel, I found associating with professionals much better which is more cost-efficient, time-efficient, and alpha efficient as the field is progressing many folds very fast. Hence, one cannot choose to be the master of all. I would rather be a smart Jack to cater to the best-suited product for him. This helped me to bring sniper focus for my clients to work in their best interests all the time.
After outsourcing investment management, how much time are you able to allocate to client-facing and business development activities?
We are a small and dedicated team who is managing clients in more than five countries. We are stepping up by providing taxation-related and Will management services.
Managing clients' 360-degree finance demands time and precision. I would not want to make a decision on which stock/mutual fund we should buy if the same service is available for less than 1.5% for the client. Rather, our focus is on how we reach maximum residents and NRI clients, and how we can bring solutions to all the worries that they will face under one solution which is Siddhanam Capital.
What trends do you foresee in the wealth management/MF distribution/advisory space in the days to come and how are you planning to grow your business?
As mentioned earlier, I believe there would be hybrid players who would offer RIA and execution services which is prevalent in the west today. India is expected to be one of the top three countries where HNIs will need these 360-degree services. That’s how we are building and equipping ourselves. Anything that client wants, we will offer. Technology will be a great enabler to empower us.
How does spirituality help you?
I start my office day at 8 am which continues till 8 pm. The day is full of action, activity, meetings, learning, exploring, and a dedicated thinking process. I am charged till the last minute before I drop into the bed
I love listening to Sadhguru and Jain Monks whose words bring peace in the chaos of hyperactivity we are surrounded with.
