“Manas Ekam Vachas Ekam, Karman Ekam Mahatmanam” – said Mahatma Gandhi, which could be translated into English as ‘Great happiness comes when what we think, what we say, and what we do are in a complete harmony.’
And your intellect’s most significant wealth is that eternal happiness of your mind. In generating this true wealth, all the professionals, entrepreneurs and companies need help.
Founded and led by Akta Sehgal, ‘The Women Owning the Business Arena’, Manas Wealth offers that same kind of intellectual support.
By creating a single platform for choosing financial products based on your financial needs, enhancing your investment skills, supporting creative ideas, and efficiently executing them for you.
The Explorer of Manas Wealth
Manas Means intellect in Sanskrit. True to its name, it has created financial awareness for the last five years.
Till July 10th, 2021, it was known as Manas Management Advisors. Today, it has become synonymous with a brilliant wealth guide for corporates.
Manas Wealth believes Small is Beautiful. It is a boutique firm that is into financial mentoring and distributing third-party financial products. Being an open architect gives it the freedom to be client-centric and focus on mentoring and client centricity.
Manas was started in 2013; however, due to personal circumstances, it took off in 2015. It took over the assets of a private limited company, to which it was earlier consulting.
It started its financial mentoring programs in 2016, with a dedicated focus on kids and women, to empower them to acquire the skills needed to be a part of the financial decision-making process and say no to financial infidelity.
According to Akta, financial literacy in the adult population of India is at 24%. And that is why she has been on a mission to make women and kids financially literate, as she says that women have the prerequisite skills to be adequate investment managers.
They are nurturers, think long term and are risk aware. They form their opinion by understanding the pros and cons and rarely would make frivolous decisions.
They are organised, disciplined and goal oriented. Thus, she, along with Manas Wealth, is trying to demystify that notion of investment as a man’s world.
The firm deals with clients across the spectrum. Its mentoring approach first works on their decision-making skills and financial understanding and then help them execute the plan through which they have decided to achieve their financial goals.
With her approach of small is beautiful, she has been reaching out to the clients at the grassroots level and many first-time investors, especially youth, to inculcate the habit of investments in them and focusing on the disciplined approach of investment at a young age.
“It is our mentoring approach that makes us unique from the other players of the industry,” Akta says.
The Rise of The Phoenix
COVID-19 impacted every industry, and Manas Wealth is no different. As per Akta, the industry is experienced in enjoying the roller coaster ride from time memorial; after all, who doesn’t like excitement. Financial markets, especially equity, are forty-two plus years old, and with such a considerable track record, these ups and downs make it what it is today.
She further says that having spent more than twenty years and has withstood the turbulence it has been through; they were equipped to deal with this. Indeed, where the other players too. A knee jerk reaction was seen at the onset of the pandemic; however, most seasoned players managed it well.
She opines that discipline, patience, and being process-oriented are vital to managing all volatilities one experiences in this industry, pandemic, or no pandemic.
The industry saw a massive fall and, at the same time, never experienced a rising, too, and that’s what makes it one of the most exciting industries to be in.
She reveals that they all worked from home making sure that all the transactions were done online, and she guesses they were visionaries. In 2016, she was on her family way and was advised bed rest.
Starting then, they tried to transit their clients to the digital medium. This effort back in 2016 paid off well in 2020 and 2021, and they could manage all their transactions, training and reporting online. Even while they contracted the virus, their work did not stop, and their clients were serviced due to these measures, which they had taken years back.
Touching the Humane Chord
Akta further says that theirs is a people’s business, and one needs to be hands-on with client’s portfolio and their behaviour. As more than the numbers, it is the human behaviour that needs to be studied, hence to her mind AI and ML are far-far away from them, and they would never let the human aspect go away and substitute it with AI and ML.
Human interaction is key for them, which helps them in their mentoring process and client servicing.
She also says that focusing on the client and being honest and truthful is the only advice to budding entrepreneurs who wish to enter this field.
This business is about money matters for sure, but it’s also about the personal equation one builds with the client. Empathy is a significant skill that needs to be homed in this business.
Another skill that one needs to work upon is unlearning. Most businesses earn a profit, keeping in mind the bottom line and building one’s business practices around that.
In this business, the focus is the client and their achieving their goals. With this focus in mind, the client achieves their goals, and the firm also becomes profitable.
A slight shift from a conventional thinking mindset will make one stand out from the rest. This industry has many big and small players. It is imperative to carve out one’s niche and have a unique proposition that focuses on the end-user rather than the wealth manager’s self.
According to Akta, they aim to conduct 100 financial awareness sessions, advancing their financial literacy mission. Their social initiatives like Motherhood Club and Kiddo mentoring would make women financially confident and help kids acquire the skill of money management.
This will make the future generation investment-ready and make the significant 50% of the population contribute to the economy, stock market, and self and continue the campaign – saying no to ‘Financial Infidelity.’
