August 8, 2016

Focus on STPs. Not just SIPs.

Brijesh Dalmia
Founder, Dalmia Advisory Services Pvt Ltd

Focus on STPs. Not just SIPs.

I will come straight to the point. I think advisors are over obsessed with equity investments. They mostly believe that it is only equity which can create wealth in the long run. I do agree with this but partly. Over exposure in equity can be damaging too.

I find the following reasons why advisors promote equity.

  • As an asset class, equity has historically offered high returns.
  • It somewhat offers higher commissions / fee as compared to debt.
  • It is a bit difficult to sell debt funds given other debt options available with clients.
  • Debt is dull, equity is exciting.
  • Equity helps increase AUM faster since mark to market is expected to be better than debt.
  • Everyone around is talking about equity and promoting equity.  So advisors think it is the right thing to do.
  • SIP is a wonderful product to take exposure in equity.
  • Lastly, advisors are highly obsessed about increasing client’s returns though clients are mostly indifferent to high returns vs average returns.

Risks of going overboard on equity

  • Skewed asset allocation of clients towards equity.
  • Downside risk is pretty high. During bad times, client’s behaviour can overrule advisors conviction.
  • Advisors are always bullish on equity. Advice can be compromised because of self bias.
  • AUM of advisors can drop significantly in bad times.
  • SIP builds AUM in the long term. Advisors burn out and leave profession.
Typically, advisors are in the AUM business. The more AUM they will have, their revenues will go up. Every new advisor is told that SIP will help them create a good AUM. I agree. But this happens over long periods. Usually, 5-10 years. By this time, many advisors burn out and leave the profession. Again, due to maximum allocation to equity, a downturn can play havoc.  I suggest keeping a balance of debt and equity in client’s portfolio as well as in the books of an advisors AUM. I strongly recommend advisors to sell debt funds. It helps increase AUM. It helps reduce risks. It helps getting higher wallet share of client’s investments. In this regard, I find selling STP (Systematic transfer Plan) can be a good option.

Advantage of selling STPs

  • The base of STP is debt funds. Typically, an investor’s investment in debt is higher than equity.
  • In the short term STPs can build reasonable AUM which can help an advisor sustain.
  • It helps maintain asset allocation mix. SIP being in equity, STPs being in debt.
  • STP AUM is more stable for an advisor and can run longer.

Even when advisors sell STPs, they intend to transfer funds into equity faster. While this can be a strategy to stagger investing into equity rather than lump sum, the real purpose of this article is to promote capital appreciation transfer to equity on a monthly / quarterly interval. It has a lot of benefits including comfort of clients that their principal is mostly safe in a debt fund. It works pretty well with clients. The concern of short term capital gain tax and exit loads is too little an issue considering the advantages of STP.Selling Rs.25,000/- worth of fresh SIPs every month can generate an AUM of around 25crores in 10 years at an average return of 12% pa. However, with the help of STPs an advisor can reach this figure faster.

If you see industry AUM, over 70% is in debt. If you see large advisors AUM, typically it is over 50% in debt. The message is clear. Sell more debt to increase AUM and get higher share of client’s wallet.  STPs can help an advisor do it.

Authored by,

Brijesh Dalmia

Founder
The Brijesh Dalmia Leadership Company


11 Thoughts to “Focus on STPs. Not just SIPs.”

  1. Tina says:

    You are so interesting! I do not believe I have read a single thing like this
    before. So good to find somebody with original thoughts on this
    subject matter. Really.. thank you for starting this up.
    This site is something that is required on the web,
    someone with a bit of originality!

  2. I do consider all the concepts you’ve presented on your
    post. They’re really convincing and can certainly work.
    Nonetheless, the posts are very brief for novices. May
    just you please prolong them a bit from next time?

    Thanks for the post.

  3. I blog often and I truly appreciate your information. This article has truly peaked my interest.
    I’m going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new information about once a week.

    I opted in for your Feed too.

  4. phone chats says:

    Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers?
    I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?

  5. Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell
    and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.”
    She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There
    was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back!
    LoL I know this is totally off topic but I had to tell someone!

  6. Hi, Neat post. There’s an issue along with your website in web explorer, would check this?
    IE nonetheless is the marketplace leader and a good portion of other folks will omit your fantastic writing because of this problem.

  7. Mark Curry says:

    great post, very informative. I’m wondering why the other
    specialists of this sector don’t realize this.

    You must proceed your writing. I’m confident,
    you have a huge readers’ base already!

  8. I wanted to send you one little bit of word to thank you very much again with the breathtaking ideas you’ve provided in this
    case. It is open-handed of people like you giving extensively all that many people might have distributed
    for an ebook to help with making some dough for themselves, most notably given that
    you might well have tried it in the event you wanted.

    Those points likewise served to provide a easy way to recognize that someone
    else have the identical fervor the same as my personal own to know more around this matter.
    I am sure there are some more enjoyable times ahead for individuals that check
    out your blog.

  9. Asking questions are really fastidious thing if
    you are not understanding anything entirely, but
    this paragraph gives fastidious understanding even.

  10. These are in fact great ideas in regarding blogging. You have
    touched some nice factors here. Any way keep up wrinting.

  11. minecraft says:

    Hello! I could have sworn I’ve visited this web site
    before but after going through some of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
    Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I discovered it and I’ll be bookmarking it
    and checking back frequently!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *