Do you know what is a COW !!!
Keep reading , dont think its not related to Personal Finance , After you read the paragraph below and read further you will come to know . This posts talks about the state of knowledge of indian ulip and mutual funds agents
The Indian Cow
“HE IS THE COW. “The cow is a successful animal. Also he is 4 footed,And because he is female, he give milks,[ but will do so when he is got child.]He is same like-God, sacred to Hindus and useful to man.But he has got four legs together.Two are forward and two are afterwards.His whole body can be utilised for use.More so the milk. Milk comes from 4 taps attached to his basement.[ horses dont have any such attachment.What can it do? Various ghee, butter, cream, curd, why and the condensed milk and so forth.Also he is useful to cobbler, watermans and mankind generally.His motion is slow only because he is of lazy species.Also his other motion.. gober] is much useful to trees, plants as well as for making flat cakes[like Pizza ] , in hand ,and drying in the sun..Cow is the only animal that extricates his feeding after eating. Then afterwards she chew with his teeth whom are situated in the inside of the mouth. He is incessantly in the meadows in the grass.His only attacking and defending organ is the horns,specially so when he is got child.This is done by knowing his head whereby he causes the weapons to be paralleled to the ground of the earth and instantly proceed with great velocity forwards.He has got tails also, situated in the backyard, but not like similar animals.It has hairs on the other end of the other side.This is done to frighten away the flies which alight on his cohesive body hereupon he gives hit with it.The palms of his feet are soft unto the touch.So the grasses head is not crushed. At night time have poses by looking down on the ground and he shouts.His eyes and nose are like his other relatives.This is the cow. “
source : Arun. K. Mukherjee blog
Most of the agents in India who sell Mutual Funds or ULIPS talk in the same way about it . They know very little about it , only to an extent which can make ignorant people feel that these agents know a lot . They have no understand ing of How to choose a good mutual fund or How to manage Ulips effectively
And these agents work for big houses , I have often came across agents who explain me mutual fund or ULIP in the same way you read “what is COW!” . They dont have communication skills to sell a product or convince a person who knows something about the product .
If you are slightly informed person , just call an agent and ask him internal questions about the product . you will see in how much water they are in .
What should be Done !!
There should be strict accountability from agents . Though you can never put all responsibility on agents for any loss of yours , at least there should be some quantifiable measure for the standard of there recommendation .
I am not saying that all agents are like this , but majority are . Some of the agents are very nice . like the one I dealt with while buying for me for the first time .
Apart from this , the biggest responsibility lies with you , you have to be well informed yourself . If you are your self an idiot , agent has all the right to make you one . So be informed , knowledgeable and understand what to do . You have to understand how to Find out if a product fits you , (Look at GFactor )
Question for you :
Do you think that eliminating agents (one who recommend products) will make situation better or Worse !! .
I think it wont affect a lot in current scenario !! , what do you think ?
I wrote a post on how does a common man think about money , read it
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t think “eliminating agents” could be the right solution, but rather we should have right personal in these places, who could be rather real aid to general public, who would have less knowledge on the subject…!!!
Was my English affected by the cow story..
Nimal
I understand your point , what you are saying will happen , but it will take time.
A lot of unemployed people come in the hope of job in this sector and companies can employ them at really pathetic salaries .
So , the problem is deeply related to lots of things like unemployment .
Manish
employment is one aspect , other aspect is education also. these people(Agents) are not that much educated( most of the cases fluent in marketting only). in present scenario well educated or highly technical persons are getting jobs only. people should identify their strength and see in which area they are perfect and deliver ur service in that area only. ( Agents are not doing that )
Yes Rajnish
Well said , the root cause is Education (thats why unemployment is there) .
The problem is not much with there education , If companies train them well for the job, agents will understand things , But major problem is with companies . They dont take much effort in training these people , or may be they consider common public to be so lame and idiot that they dont bother to train them well .
I have seen one of the worst agents who was working for ICICI . the best I have seen is from ING .
Have you come across any idiots .
Manish
hi manish,i am fully convinced that these agents don’t know anything and the basic reason behind this is that they don’t feel like learning.We have very small no. of people who are actually knowledgeable and informed and this small is like 10% only(i think) rest all are unaware about all these products and so it is easy to be fool all these kinds of investors and thus this industry is full of such agents.
Good one manish..I had got rid of agents long back..wheni realised that they don’t have answers to my question.And moreover after the SEBI rule in 2008 (no entry load) i have to do my homework before i invest directly with amc.
Good Job man
Thanks,
Raja
@Smart Investment
I think it must be less than 2-3% , not 10% . I came across 100′s of people , but never saw more than 2-3 people who acutally have good idea about these things .
@Raja
Nice to know that you got rid of them . Currently they dont suggest mutual funds out of there own research or study . they just take top 5 mutual funds from som website .
Its not worth .
Manish