ETMarkets Smart Talk | Bharat investors to drive next growth wave in wealth management: Nilesh Naik

In an interaction with Kshitij Anand of ETMarkets Smart Talk, Nilesh D. Naik, Head of Investment Products at Share.Market, highlighted how the rise of ‘Bharat’—spanning tier II, tier III, and smaller towns—is reshaping the wealth management ecosystem.

With deeper digital penetration and growing participation from B30 cities, he believes this segment will be instrumental in expanding India’s investor base from around 60 million to nearly 200 million over the next decade, while also redefining how platforms approach product design, education, and investor behaviour. Edited Excerpts –

Kshitij Anand: Now that the access problem has been solved by digital apps, what specific psychological barriers are preventing retail investors from making those intelligent decisions?

Nilesh D. Naik: You are right— from an access perspective, the problem has largely been solved over the last five to six years. But one of the key challenges today is the complexity involved in starting the investing journey. And I think that is where platforms need to spend a lot of time.
For example, for people who have been investing in mutual funds, it may not be that difficult— mutual funds may come across as a very simple product.

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But for a first-time investor, with thousands of products available, how do you zero down on the right one? That remains a big challenge. Going forward, you will see a lot of platforms focusing on this area in a big way.

Kshitij Anand: And how can a retail investor distinguish between a fund that is genuinely consistent and one that is simply riding a temporary market tailwind?

Nilesh D. Naik: Yes, this is an interesting question and one of the key issues that has been widely discussed in the industry. The general tendency of customers is to go by performance— they look at three-year or one-year performance and invest accordingly.
At least at PhonePe, we have tried to address this issue by not focusing too much on performance, but by highlighting the consistency of the product. When I say consistency, there are complex concepts like rolling returns and so on.

We try to simplify these, do the heavy lifting at our end, and present a simple metric that helps customers see whether the product has been consistent over the long term in relative terms, compared to other schemes in the category.

I think it is very important to shift the focus away from point-to-point returns, which are highly cyclical— not just at the market level, but even at the relative performance level. So yes, this is a key area to focus on.

Kshitij Anand: And at PhonePe, you very much believe in the Bharat story. So, how is that evolving at PhonePe and in the wealth management space?

Nilesh D. Naik: Yes, the strength of PhonePe is our distribution reach, and we have a very strong presence in tier II, tier III cities and beyond. Just to share some numbers with you—if you look at the mutual fund customers that we have, more than two-thirds of them are from B30 cities, beyond the top 30, as per the AMFI definition.

And not just from a customer perspective, but even from an AUM perspective, this is very different from the industry numbers, where it is actually the other way around, at least in terms of assets. So, the participation that we have seen is very encouraging, and it motivates us to build more for that cohort.

That is going to be the growth engine for the industry as well, in terms of moving from a 60 million customer base to, let us say, 200 million over the next decade or so.

Kshitij Anand: And let me also get your perspective on this—in a market that is prone to sudden volatility, how can platforms move beyond just providing data and actually help engineer better investor behaviour?

Nilesh D. Naik: Yes, it does not start with volatility. What you need to do is ensure that when the customer or investor is investing, at that stage itself, you offer the right kind of product mix. That will take away half the problem because when you invest in the wrong product, the volatility tends to be much higher.

A classic example today is investors who have invested in small caps. For a first-time investor, the kind of volatility experienced there is very different from someone who started with a large-cap, index, or hybrid product.

So, retaining a customer who has invested in core products is relatively easier compared to someone investing in small-cap or thematic products.

However, when such situations arise, there cannot be a single solution that addresses the entire problem. Continuous education is very important. Having the right contextual education within the app is critical. The nudges you give to customers—guiding them on how certain actions may work against them—are also very important. And of course, customers learn through experience.

No matter how much we educate them, experience cannot be replaced. The good thing is that many of these customers are in their 20s, which means over the next three to four years, if they continue investing, they will develop their own learning—and that is the best teacher.

Kshitij Anand: Staying with the Bharat story, as investors spread into tier II and tier III cities, how do we ensure that intelligence is simplified enough to be accessible to first-time investors?

Nilesh D. Naik: There are different ways to do this, but I can share what we have done at PhonePe Wealth to help customers. When it comes to shortlisting or identifying funds, there are three core parameters that we focus on.

The first is the consistency of the fund’s performance. The second is risk. And the third is whether there is a method behind that performance. By method, I mean the style of the fund manager and how the product is managed.

We have launched an interesting tool called CRISP, which stands for Consistency, Risk, and Investment Style of Portfolio. We understand that these are relatively complex concepts, so we simplify them by categorising factors such as consistency into high, medium, or low; and risk into acceptable or high levels, so that investors can make informed decisions.

Lastly, we also explain how the product is managed—whether it follows a quality, value, or momentum style—so that customers can create the right mix of funds that complement each other.

However, even with simplification, education remains critical. We are focusing a lot on educating customers about these concepts in a simple and accessible manner.

Kshitij Anand: Do you feel there is any single mistake that investors usually make when selecting a fund or investing?

Nilesh D. Naik: Two things I would highlight here. One is, of course, investing based on past performance. In fact, we have done several studies wherein, if you look at, say, the previous three-year ranking of funds in a category and compare it with the next three years—for example, 2019 to 2022 versus 2022 to 2025—and then look at the ranks, the rank correlation is actually close to zero.

This means there is absolutely no correlation between the two, which tells you that investing based on past performance does not work. However, it is a common behaviour among customers to look at returns and invest, and this is where one of the biggest mistakes comes from the customer side.

The second is the absolute lack of planning. It is like someone tells me that this is a good fund, and I invest without thinking about why I am investing or what my framework should be.

Every investor, no matter how small the investment, needs a framework that they can refer back to, especially during times when markets are highly volatile. Otherwise, you will keep debating whether to add more equity or redeem. Having a framework helps.

When I say framework, it means understanding that your investment is long term and defining the level of downside risk you can tolerate. For example, based on recent data, markets can fall by as much as 40% in a worst-case scenario.

But if, as an investor, I cannot tolerate more than a 20% downside, then I would probably allocate 50–60% to equity and the rest to fixed income products, gold, etc. Now, whenever something happens in the market, you can go back to that asset allocation framework and assess whether you are still aligned with your plan.

It is a very simple concept, and there can be many variations of it. But having a proper plan is extremely important, and this is something that is missing for most investors.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)