I have been a firm advocate for our role as advisors to be much beyond the scope of mere financial advisory. That is just a small aspect of our clients’ lives that we influence. There are a lot more area that we consciously/subconsciously engage in and can have very meaningful positive impact on. Today, I write on something that I strongly believe in and am passionate about- our role as agents of social change and reform. This comes from a place of me being a woman, a financial advisor, a millennial and someone who has seen very strong role models in her life that have showed exemplary fluidity when it comes to social change. A disclaimer is that I cannot claim to have done much in this regard in comparison to what I want to do, so most of this article can be termed to be merely aspirational. I am hoping the views and thoughts of the other members will eventually help us all become the agents of change I aspire our community to be. I will be highlighting some such aspects and opportunities, and by quoting some examples of good work being done by our own members, I hope to throw this topic open for discussion and development. Apologies in advance to those who I may miss mentioning.

As financial advisors, over the years, we build a rapport of mutual trust and respect with our clients. Regardless of how the professional relationship started, we find our bonds with our clients become personal in nature. The client confides in us about things that transcend the boundaries of money management and affect their lives on a much deeper level. How many of us have faced situations where the clients share the best of their lives’ news or the absolute worst of their problems with us? Sometimes even before their near and dear ones? Why? Is it merely because those will have a financial implication in their lives? No. It is because they do realise after a point in time that we are an entity in their life that is a keen listener and a well-wisher. And often because of our exposure to a multitude of clients, we tend to know things that may not come to their knowledge in the routine course of life. They feel comfortable talking to us and trust our judgement.

Can we use this opportunity to go above and beyond the routine role of money management and advocate for some other social reforms too? When I say, I envision for our community to become agents of change, I do not mean us becoming therapists, social workers, law-enforcers or sermon-givers. I mean that we utilise this blessing of our clients’ trust in us and the one-to-many communication chain to sow the seeds of reformed thinking. Thoughts that will someday convert to action and belief and will make tomorrow a better day- socially, environmentally, and in many other aspects. Let me move on to some specific aspects with some examples of what our community members are currently doing:

Gender roles: We can propagate the idea of gender neutrality, women empowerment and humanisation of men in very subtle forms. Bring up examples of how your own family may be assigning gender-neutral roles to its members. Male advisors talking about how they are doing some household chores, female advisors talking about aspirational thoughts and empowerment of their gender as it exists in their life, can sub-consciously normalise a lot of these reforms without the client even realising it. Do we not emphasize on the wife’s involvement in the financial decisions of the family? Can we not similarly just normalise these other things? While talking to Mr. Amit Trivedi, he told me how a few years back it struck him that while helping clients with goal planning, people always spoke about “son’s education” and “daughter’s marriage”. The social conditioning of the Indian mind is evolving, sure, but the speed of this evolution is different for everyone and a lot of times, it’s a result of their environment, upbringing, experiences, culture, etc. So, instead of just thinking that this is the wrong approach, he spoke to some senior advisors about this and they decided to start talking about these goals in a gender-neutral way. Today, the discussions always tend to revolve around “child’s education and marriage”. We may not realise what impact such small actions have but it may completely change some girl’s life who now will study the best course because her parents’ financial advisors nudged them to think about it. Some boy’s family will not think it is their right to have the girl’s family pay for the entire marriage expenses because their advisor normalised the idea of saving up for their son’s marriage.

Social strata: While it may not be correct to say that people with better financial backgrounds always have their finances planned and have no money problems, it is very correct to say, that financial and investment advice is a luxury that people from less fortunate backgrounds can’t even dream of. Someone with a Rs. 5,000 per month income also has the same struggles in life as anyone else, albeit with way lesser resources. Can we imagine the magnitude of change we can bring in their lives if we can even help them save a small amount? Or teach them the concept of using these savings for future needs? Ms. Nisha Sanghavi and Ms. Prathiba Girish have conducted several sessions with housemaids where they are taught about these habits in a language that they understand, for the needs that they have. If each one of us could even reach out to one such person every month, imagine how many households we would collectively impact.

Environment: Even as you’re reading this, our planet is degrading by the second, suffering irreversible ecological damage. While awareness about this and more sustainable alternatives to the current resources we use are developing, there is still a LOT to be done in this regard. How can we as advisors do something here? I am not asking anyone of you to give gyaan about saving the planet to anyone. Instead, lead by example. There are many sustainable alternatives available to plastic products, many upcycles and environment-friendly products out there. Many initiatives that need our support. We can send them an eco-friendly product alternative for Diwali instead of chocolates/sweets packed in insane amounts of plastic. There are bamboo toothbrushes, bio-degradable bath products, biodegradable sanitary pads, compostable plastic, steel/bamboo straws, upcycled carry bags and what not. If your clients know about these products, they will possibly use them. Just one of us can make at least 50 families aware of such products. Last month, Network FP, in a bid to felicitate its’ speakers at one of its even, planted 10 trees in each speaker’s name. Such a small action but can have such mammoth impact. Imagine if each client you know, donated for 10 trees and then the people they know did the same, how many acres of lush greenery are we preparing for?!

Children: A lot of advisors are taking efforts to teach kids of their clients about money and its management from a very young age. This is also a social change. These kids will grow up, get their first job and not blow the entire pay-check up before starting a small SIP. They will not find themselves stuck in massive debt traps in their 30s-40s and will definitely retire sitting on a sufficient corpus. I have known Ms. Kunjal Shah and Mr. Rohit Shah from our fraternity to conduct such workshops specifically and a lot other advisors roping in the next generation of their clients’ families in a quest for a financially secure future.

Loss of loved ones: Many of us may have found ourselves in situations where after the death of a family member, we help the rest of the family (a lot of times this being widows who have never really dealt with money matters) find its feet and get control over their finances, preventing them from getting duped or running out of money. Imagine their fate if they were suddenly faced with having to deal with this completely on their own. Joint families are slowly disappearing and familial bonds may not always be that close. We become the client’s family here and help them secure their future. A noteworthy mention here would be Col. Sanjeev Govila (Retd) who undertakes various efforts with his wife to counsel and secure the financial future of war-widows.

Health and wellness: There is so much scope here, especially now, with the culture of webinars setting in. Through various such sessions, we can normalise and encourage clients to talk about physical and mental health issues that sometimes they may even never know exist. General health, specific diseases, therapy, counselling, yoga, fitness, the list is endless. Your clients will appreciate this and also heed the advice better than if someone independently told them about these things. This is because such initiatives form an advisor institutionalise and validate the concepts in the mind of the client. Ms. Bhuvanaa Shreeram has conducted a few such sessions during the lockdown. A leading mutual fund house also recently undertook a “health and wealth” initiative through a large-scale webinar across the country.

Charity: This is in fact one of the most important places we can make an impact. While planning for goals, we often ask our clients about charity. While some of them are very clear about what they want to do, other want to help but don’t know how. As advisors, we can keep handy, a list of vetted causes and institutions where we could direct our clients’ charitable intentions. Some people also prefer to donate to institutions that will provide them with a tax deduction benefit. We can help to match these needs and resources. It is my wish to add the direct donation links to some of the charities close to my heart on my website whenever I revamp it. We can pass on information about smaller initiatives and highlight smaller actions that can help someone. Food donation drives, ways to help the needy, sharing your experiences doing community service, etc can have a great impact. From our fraternity, Mr. Shrikant Bhagwat does tremendous levels of community service through the participation of his team, his clients, and even other entities like local mutual fund offices, etc.

Apart from these, other areas where we can inspire clients can include good reading habits, sharing reliable sources of news and information, encouraging voter participation during elections, etc. I want to remind us all about the golden rule of the power of compounding when it comes to effecting positive social change- it can show us way more astounding effects than we see in our clients’ well-invested money. Here’s to going that extra mile and truly making our profession count.