The CEO of a company, the COO of a brokerage company and the Head of Operations of a BPO thanked me for introducing them to this brilliant concept of SIP.

I have written enough about SIP – and I strongly believe it requires a brilliant mind to understand simple things – and Providence to help them actually do it.

It is very easy for me to take the full credit for the accolades that I have got for SIP, but I thought I should share the credit with the man who introduced me to SIP. It was Suraj Kealey. At the time I met him he was the head of Marketing (not sure if he headed Sales too, I think he did). I think the year was 1999 or 2000. When he said ‘good for the investor, good for the distributor, good for the fund manager’ – the saying just stuck. Not sure who christened him ‘SIP Suraj’ – but I was one of the earliest users of the term! Maybe I christened him? Not sure.

Suraj spoke sense (he did even when he was in Metlife – and that must have been difficult, I guess!) – he still is a sane voice in the financial services industry (esp in the sales side). He made sure that Templeton was the thought leader…well that is another story.

I was amused when 2 channels thought that there was no story to do about the amazing increase in SIPs (I heard that there are 55 lakh SIPs averaging Rs. 2500 per month per SIP). Well channels are channels, are they not?
ET has done a story on the growing popularity of SIPs (once upon a time the incentive to do a SIP was to save the entry load, now there is no load anyway!).

So what Suraj taught me in 1999, banks have discovered in 2011 (not bad) and they are planning to sell SIPs in a big way. SBI plans to sell 25,00,000 SIPs, Axis bank proposes to sell 5,00,000, Canara 200,000. Making an assumption that Hdfc, Icici, Kotak, banks, the national distributors, the IFAs all sell SIPs – I guess the number will reach about 70,00,000 SIPs. The bad thing is each bank will sell its own scheme – so the best performing fund will not be the best garnering fund. That is not an issue at all.

If all this information is true and you wish to make money on this info, just start your SIP – stick to the tried and tested names (and pray for the fund manager’s long life – metaphorically, on earth and in the fund house!). If you are confused stick to a good index fund. Like Franklin Templeton Index fund. If you like this article ask for my ARN code. Suddenly it looks attractive to do business in Index funds. Though personally I think the Sensex and the Nifty are poorly crafted. But that is another story na?

On page 10 of ET (19 JULY 2011)  Nishanth Vasudevan has done a story, not sure of the figures, but the story is good. Poor guy he must also  (like me) be praying for some nice source of authentic mutual fund information. I am still groping.
Read the link

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/banking/finance/banking/banks-set-goals-for-their-branches-to-sell-equity-schemes-with-sips/articleshow/9277005.cms