DSP Blackrock has been at the forefront of providing cutting edge tools and insights to Indian financial advisors to help them scale up to global standards of advice delivery, through its "Futurist" platform. Taking this effort to a new level, team DSP Blackrock invited Rick Kahler, noted US based financial planner and a global thought leader in the emerging new field of "Financial Therapy", to conduct a workshop in Mumbai for some of India's leading financial advisors. Read on to understand from Ajit Menon more about the Futurist platform and how some of India's leading advisors felt about Rick's workshop on "Financial Therapy".

Here's what Ajit Menon said about Futurist and the latest initiative from this platform:

"At DSP BlackRock we have been very focused on building the IFA business and we are very proud of what we have achieved so far. The intent of all our efforts has been squarely on - 'How do we help our partners grow their business?" We took many initiatives that have been recognized by our partners including bringing best in class risk profiling software tools like Finnametrica, product selection tools like Value Express. We also have a certification program called the Accredited Wealth Planner ( AWP ) that is co-partnered with Dr. Uma Shashikant and CIEL, and many more. The Psychometric evaluation tool for IFAs that allows them to compare themselves to the best in the business, the Future advisor planning tool and more.

Going into 2015 it is our endeavor to formalize many of our offerings into a package specially for our partners that have contributed to our business over the years and give us an opportunity to support more serious players from across the country. We have therefore decided to bring together the best of our offers under the umbrella of a program called the 'Futurist' which we think aptly defines our partners. While the program will include subsidies for some best in class tools that we already have, we will continue to bring more benefits over the course of the year for our partners. Guest speaker sessions being one of them.

Rick Kahler, the renowned Financial advisor from the United States was in India on our invitation for one such session. We invited our 'President' category partners for a session with Rick where he took them through a workshop outlining many concepts on financial planning that were cutting edge. I am sure our partners, especially those who intend to further their financial planning practice, benefited a lot. We are confident that the Futurist program will set a benchmark among our partners."

Rick Kahler's workshop focused on "Financial Therapy", an emerging new field within the financial advisory profession, which amalgamates best practices from the number crunching oriented financial planning process with therapeutic elements from behavioural psychology. It is this amalgam, Rick believes, that enables financial planners to not only make good plans, but to guide clients through the journey and help them actually achieve the plans.

The workshop seems to have been well received by participants - here is what some of India's leading advisors, who participated in the workshop, have to say :

Suresh Sadagopan, Ladder 7 Financial Planners, Mumbai, said, "Rick's workshop will help us deepen our understanding of our clients. As he says, we financial planners collect a lot of financial data which is very useful to make plans, but even the best made plans can be laid low for reasons we don't even understand. Clients' decisions are driven by what Rick terms as "life scripts" - firm beliefs and convictions that come out of experiences or otherwise. We need to engage with our clients to understand their life scripts if we are to not only make good plans, but see them through to successful execution."

Ranjit Dani, Think Consultants, Nagpur, said, "Financial therapy as a topic has tremendous depth. It was a pity that the workshop was only for half a day - Rick could have taken a 3 day workshop, with the kind of insights he has in this field of knowledge. There is a lot of food for thought he has left for us to consider - about getting investors to change the way they think about money. The challenge for us is to see how we can practically apply some of these insights in a practice that deals with numerous retail investors."

Christopher Louzado, InTrust Advisors, Pune, said, "Rick uses psychology extensively. Some of his insights make one think about what we ourselves are doing and what we may want to change! In the Indian context, I guess one challenge that advisors may face is that clients may not share their deepest fears and their most cherished dreams so readily with their financial advisors. This can sometimes come in the way of actually delivering the kind of financial therapy that Rick speaks about."

Nikhil Naik, Naik Wealth, Mumbai, said, "Rick uses behavioural finance extensively in his practice. The key take away for me was "Tell me more" - a strategy where you consciously attempt less to convince your client about your thoughts, and attempt to understand more about aspects of the client's life that you may not have asked before. His "Money Eggs" module, through which one can get clients to share their positive and negative life experiences, is a thought-provoking way of trying to engage with clients at a much deeper level."

WF spoke with Rick after his workshop, to understand more about the evolution of fee based financial planning services in the US and consumer attitudes in the US towards fees. There are great insights that he shared with us, which we will cover in part 2 of this article.

Meanwhile, as Ajit Menon says, if you are really looking at imbibing global best practices in your advisory practice, you can leverage DSP Blackrock's Futurist platform, and count on Ajit and his team to bring to you cutting edge tools, insights and thought leaders to help you in the journey.

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