Kotak Life becomes first Life Insurance company in India to train Advisors to become Certified PFAs

In a first of its kind initiative by a Life Insurance company in India, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited (Kotak Life Insurance) today launched a programme to enable life advisors and employees in advisory roles become Certified Personal Financial Advisors (CPFAs). National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), an educational initiative by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will provide curriculum and knowledge support to Kotak Life Insurance.

Certified Personal Financial Advisor (CPFA) examination has been jointly created by NISM and Financial Planning Corporation of India Ltd (FPCIL). It covers holistic knowledge on various Investment Products, Asset Allocation, Insurance, Retirement Planning, Tax and Estate Planning.

More details about the certification are available on http://InvestorFirst.in/advisor. (InvestorFirst.in is NISM’s online investor education initiative to offer unbiased information on personal finance.) In future, this online platform will also be used to help investors locate Certified Personal Financial Advisors in their city or town.

The programme will help Kotak’s Life advisors significantly enhance their capacity to help customers realize and prioritize their needs and make informed investment choices. Kotak Life Insurance has chosen 450 of its top life advisors and 350 Kotak employees from across the country to participate in the first phase of the programme. The programme will eventually cover all Kotak life advisors and employees in advisory roles at Kotak Life Insurance.

Commenting on the tie-up, Anand Dewan, Senior Vice President, Business Impact Group, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance said “Professional investment advice is clearly the need of the hour, and given the complexity of financial markets, we realize the crucial role of the intermediary in helping the investor in making an informed choice. Equipping our Life Advisors with knowledge and skills to be able to provide value advice is critical.

This highly credible industry vetted certification will go a long way in addressing that need and customers will benefit immensely from need based, high quality advice”.

Prof. G Sethu, OSD In-Charge of National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) said “A personal financial advisor who can understand an individual’s overall financial needs and then offer comprehensive financial planning solution can provide more value as opposed to offering only a particular investment or insurance product. We are glad to support Kotak Life Insurance in this training initiative to help their life advisors become holistic financial planners.”

“Our aim is to partner with various industry players in making the CPFA examination a minimum knowledge benchmark for personal financial advisors in India.” added Mr. M L Soneji, Registrar at National Institute of Securities Markets.

Â