I became a client for Affluence Edifice / Trans Financial Services couple of years ago. I would like to share my personal experience with you.
They got my financial details for the planning. Mr. Christopher , the head of the Trans Financial Services, advised that I should not go for ULIP but eventually he suggested ULIP only don’t know why at that moment. I had some lump sum amount, he made me to put 40 percent of my money in a small cap NFO and 20% of money in a FundOfFund NFO. Apparently I did not know anything then so just blindly believed them and put the money. Only 10 to 20% of money had put into large cap funds. Only one good thing was he suggested me to put some money into SIPs. After some months markets went down and the funds went into losses. They did not call me to advise also. They do not monitor or take care of the investments. They are only interested in getting new clients and minting money from them, after that they do not follow up .
Some of the SIPs what he suggested did not give good returns over the two years but they did not do anything to rebalance it or switch it. After a year they contacted me to go for new investments because they know that my salary would have got increased. When I said no they persuaded me to withdraw money from one non performing fund and put it in an ULIP. I somehow got convinced and did that. After getting the ULIP policy I noticed 20% of my investment was deducted as premium allocation charges.
That’s my sad story :(
After this bitter experience I learnt few things about investment and realized the damages they caused to me, they are:
No major contribution to Large Cap funds, which is very important
Invested 40% in a NFO at one shot instead of putting in debt fund and doing STP so to avoid any bad timing in the market.
Sold high premium ULIPs instead of term insurance
Withdrawn money from a non-performing fund and invested in a ULIP where I lost 20% at one shot.
Invested another major portion in FundOfFund which attract long term capital gain tax.
Most of the funds gave very poor returns.
Seriously PLEASE AVOID such companies they work for their own benefits. Don’t blindly believe such companies. Do your research and hire a good CFP who genuinely advises.
I transferred my funds to another broker and I managing my investments on my own.
All the best, be aware, there are people around who wants to eat your cake! :)