PMS AIF World is a new age investment services company that is transforming the Indian wealth management industry from relationship-based sales approach to knowledge-based smart investment approach. Well experienced investors and industry thought leaders mention that PMS AIF World is filling the much-needed gap in the space of ALTERNATES.

PMS AIF World is truly genuine, visionary, creative, focused, and persistent.

One of its recent works has been its unique webinar series, in association with Emkay Investment Managers Ltd., “The Emkay Alpha Mavens.”

This article sums up the series for the readers by stating few excerpts from some of the episodes.

The endeavor of “The Emkay Alpha Mavens” series was to understand the thought process of leaders from the Indian wealth management industry as this segment of financial services sector has opened up beautifully with the presence of many models and heightened competition. Fund managers keep clients’ assets in well organized, well-regulated and even individually customized products in such a manner that there is no room for error but only alpha. However, markets are dynamic, and investors are driven by sentiments. In all this fluid and dramatic money management industry, being a Wealth Manager is a tough, but a rewarding and interesting career.

The Emkay Alpha Mavens webinar-series was moderated by 3 Alpha hosts.

Mr. Vikaas M Sachdeva (CEO, Emkay Investment Managers): Mr. Vikaas is an industry veteran with over two decades of experience. In the course of his career, he has held several influential and senior management positions across marquee financial service organizations. He has a broad range of interests across functions like sales, distribution, marketing, Investment banking, product, and customer service.

Mr. Sachin Shah (Fund Manager, Emkay Investment Managers): Mr. Sachin is a seasoned fund manager with over two decades of experience in the Indian equity markets. By virtue of his extensive research, he lead the development of E-Qual Risk, EIML’s proprietary module which helps us to evaluate and compare listed companies on various aspects of governance.

Mr. Sankalpo Pal (Biz. Development, PMS AIF World): Mr. Sankalpo is an investment professional with more than 6 years of experience in this space. He has worked in various capacities with different wealth management companies and has comprehensive experience in cementing relationships with the clients for managing wealth and portfolios.

The web-series started off with a topic that everyone was looking forward to in Jan 2021, “Equities at All Time High: Where and How to Look for Alpha in 2021?”

Who could imagine in Jan 2021 that markets would show 50% upside in 9 months from already attained all-time highs which were making people concerned!

Going back and hearing to what was discussed then, only makes one believe very strongly that, “Time in the market matters more than timing the market.”

To hear a successful man talking is always interesting, as one looks for words of wisdom with an aim to learn and implement from the mantras of such individuals. With this objective, 2nd episode of The Emkay Alpha Mavens was conducted with Mr. Karan Bhagat, Founder, MD & CEO of IIFL Wealth. This episode coincidently happened on the day of Basant Panchami, the day dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the symbol of knowledge and wisdom.

This episode started off with a powerful statement by the speaker “Success is when you convert your idea into a client.”

An interesting story from this market veteran unraveled in this episode when the audience was informed that he was initially offered a consulting role in a company based in Spain; but destiny had other plans as he had to join Kotak Securities because his overseas offer got revoked, due to 9/11 and the dot com crash. Owing to his earlier experience in the markets of Calcutta at the age of 17, running a travel agency, he had decided, he won’t do a sales job ever. In hindsight, now he believes that in the making of an entrepreneur the key roles are played by – Luck, Immediate Surroundings, Hard work, Passion, & Perseverance— in that order.

Luck means being at the right place at the right time, as his journey suggests in India in the early 2000s, wealth management was broker-driven, asset allocation was an alien concept, and the market was ripe for professional & scientifically driven money management. Immediate surroundings play a role by the virtue of one’s company, the people one works with, and the kind of people one meets. And, to this, he gives credit to the company he kept. While the earlier two factors are common to all, hard work, passion, and perseverance make all the difference to one’s success as an entrepreneur.

The 3rd episode was coined to understand the art & science of managing HNI wealth and the advisory business. For this episode, another Alpha Maven wealth management Industry leader was invited.

In this episode, speaker Mr. Rajesh Saluja, CEO & Managing Director – ASK Wealth Advisors, laid out the framework for wealth creation. He mentioned, that the most important aspect is that it is very important to ensure that an individual’s post-tax and post-inflation surpluses (earnings in excess of expenses of all kinds) grow in a positive manner. So, investments should be made in such a way that generate alpha. For achieving this, first step is the aspect of planning. If the goals to be achieved (short-term and/or long-term) are clearly defined, financial planning can become much easier as then investment decisions can be made from a ‘return perspective. Wealth creation will happen through growth assets. The Fixed Income products will manage one’s cash flow and adjust for inflation but growth asset classes like businesses, equities, real estate, and so on, will generate positive post-tax and post-inflation returns that will in turn create wealth.

Talking about businesses, we focused one episode on how private banks have over time evolved as wealth managers in the digital world. To share insights on this topic, we invited Mr. Apurva Sahijwani, Executive Vice President & Head – Private Banking, Axis Bank.

Mr. Sahijwani believes that a parallel and symbiotic relationship is necessary when a large private bank enters the wealth management space. Earlier it was the client’s age that determined the asset allocations and risk profile but today we do not just stick to that. Moreover, transaction processing has changed the way a wealth manager or a bank manages investor’s money. When asked the difference between wealth management and private banking, he explained that wealth management looks only at the assets of the investor while private banking looks at the balance sheet as a whole. Furthermore, it is important for us to understand that wealth management is a subset of private banking, and they ideally need to have a sound research team and leverage technology to their advantage as well.

Well, wealth management is not a micro field. It has its own level playing field and thus comes in the very many approaches that are being followed. Moving ahead in the series, we invited Mr. Samir Kaul, MD & CEO, Trust-Plutus Wealth to discuss the two wealth management approaches: Bulge Bracket & Boutique.

The business of the proprietary ideation thrives on the premise that many HNI families and investors look for customized products. This has led to cut-throat competition in the wealth management industry. So much so that since 2009, spreads have come down and the attrition rate of the relationship managers have been very high. The trend has shifted to a scenario today where small retail investors are being offered the same products as were offered to ultra HNIs although in small units in different parts of the world. The digital disruption has created multi-asset portfolios leading to ease of use and understanding as well. Mr. Samir Kaul exclaimed that breaking products into smaller units will be beneficial (from a digital point of view) only up to a certain threshold. Once it is breached, the investor will be interested to meet in-person and have an emotional connection as well with the wealth manager.

As we neared the celebration of India’s 75th Independence Day, we did a webinar throwing light on the road ahead for the Indian economy. The speaker for this episode was Mr. Jaideep Hansraj, MD and CEO, Kotak Securities.

As Wealth managers aim to generate alpha, wealth management has now become an interesting topic and high net worth clients are ready to lend their assets for immaculate management of the same. The field has opened up beautifully and the presence of many competitors has enlivened the space. There has been a significant change since NSE’s digital rollout of services. Fund managers have driven assets into well organized and customized products for clients that there is no room for error but only alpha to be generated. Mr. Jaideep reminded the audience that the growth of IPO and venture capital business has been evident in the reduced cost space and customized products are now available in the market. To state briefly, for wealthier families, custodian and trusteeship business is the way forward. The increase in wealth of investors has been humongous and the technology driven disruption has aided many organizations to take advantage of the same and create models that generate wealth.

Technology has surely been a game changer and has led to the disruption of many fields. In the space of wealth management also, technology has played a major role. The role and application of technology in this space was well summarised in an episode, where the speaker was Mr. Sampath Kumar, Group Head – NRI Domestic & Overseas Business, Tele-Sales, & Service Relationships and TPP, HDFC Bank.

Taking help of technology and keeping a tab on competitors, HDFC Bank has a unified central research desk that helps develop recommendations across all asset classes and helps dissemination of efficient information. The relationship process with the investors is robust and re-engineered on a regular basis which is at the core of the bank. Keeping a distance from high credit risk exposures (again, thanks to technology) has helped the model in meeting investment objectives of customers. They have been segregated into Complaints, Queries and Resolutions (CQR) and are keen to resolve queries or complaints on the first call itself. Each customer is assigned a docket number which is tracked by the quality team to ensure that it is resolved within the given timeframe. It is worth noting that Mr. Sampath Kumar mentioned that the model is not yet 100% efficient in resolution but are in the process of making a bold statement. The process orientation has been very well oiled and kept in immaculate shape to continue delivering superior quality results to their clients.


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RISK DISCLAIMER: Investments are subject to market-related risks. This write up is meant for general information purposes and not to be construed as any recommendation or advice. The investor must make their own analysis and decision depending upon risk appetite. Only those investors who have an aptitude and attitude to risk should consider the space of Alternates (PMS & AIFs). Past Performance may or may not be sustained in the future and should not be used as a basis for comparison with other investments. Please read the disclosure documents carefully before investing. PMS & AIF products are market-linked and do not offer any guaranteed/assured returns. These are riskier investments, with a risk to principal amount as well. Thus, investors must make informed decisions. It is necessary to deep dive not only into the performance, but also into people, philosophy, portfolio, and price, before investing. We, at PMS AIF World do such a detailed 5 P analysis.

At PMS AIF World, all PMS AIF Products are listed with all possible information and data for investors to understand & compare these products from the lens of risks as well as returns.


A unique proprietary framework has been founded by PMS AIF World whereby 3 important attributes i.e. Quality (Q), Risk(R), and Consistency(C) are presented for more than 150 portfolio management services by covering 9 factors like Standard deviation, Beta, Sharpe, Alpha, Consistency Ratio, and so on. Many investors as well as the industry are using this proprietary framework to learn, compare, and select the best PMS products in India.

Here is the link to Register and access our QRC Database.

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