Media Release

Dubai, Nov 21: The KEL’s much awaited Financial Planning session was successfully carried out by KEL Dubai on 19th November, 2011 at the India Club.

The event attracted an overwhelming response and was attended by around 100 members and their families. Attendees included people from all walks of life - entrepreneurs and professionals alike, from the banking, freight forwarding, construction, media, tourism, trading and information technology. Charles D’Souza, who has just taken over as Director – Events kicked off the session and emphasized the need and importance of networking. He briefly highlighted the activities of KEL in 2011, including the upcoming ones. Charles explained to the audience that the KEL Dubai membership has swelled to over 110 people. The KEL leadership team was determined to deliver value and invited members to introduce the organisation to others who could benefit from it.

Shobha Mendonca, who is in her second year as the President of KEL Dubai, welcomed the audience.   Shobha also extended a warm welcome to Robinson Dsouza and Mark Dsouza (President and President Elect of KEL Bangalore respectively) who were in the city.

Shobha introduced Norbert Shenoy, the key note speaker of the evening. Shenoy is the Managing Director of Arunanjali Securities, a financial consultancy and brokerage firm, dealing in the National and Bombay Stock Exchanges in India.  Shenoy is also the Director of DECA FZE, U.A.E. and Paradise Stone Exporting Co. Pvt. Ltd. in Mangalore. 

Shobha encouraged the members to make the best of the evening. She explained that investors world over have seen their wealth being destroyed, and savers are confronted by a dearth of promising investment avenues with low returns and high risks, threatening their future financial security.  In such an environment, she said, it was important to engage a good financial planner who has the credibility and depth of the entire gamut of asset classes in relation to one’s risk profile and stage in the life cycle. Mr. Shenoy, who has served for over two decades with Reserve Bank of India, understands the underlying currents that drive the Indian economy better than many others, fits that bill of an expert Financial Advisor.

Norbert Shenoy, in his typical style explained the state of the Indian economy and how it was interlinked with the global economy. Although the next few quarters would be challenging, he explained, unlike countries in the West, India is more suited to withstand the pressures in the long run. The Indian economy would eventually bounce back after seeing a dip in the near future, he said. However one should view the current situation as an opportunity to invest in quality shares or mutual funds.

Shenoy highlighted three critical factors to be successful as an Investor. These were to select a good Financial Planner, identify one’s goals and to work systematically in achieving these goals.

Shenoy said that to be effective in Financial Planning, you need to be disciplined. For to be effective he suggested that –

a) Define goals for each milestone in one’s life.
b) These goals determine the size of the corpus.
c) Time horizon and risk profile will decide the asset allocation.
d) Evaluate the portfolio regularly and take mid course corrections as and when necessary.
e) Layout clear procedures to deploy corpus – from payments, transfers, gifts, annuities, will, tax efficient trusts etc.

Shenoy covered practically all types of assets from fixed income and insurance products, and investment in properties, equities, mutual funds and commodities.  He stressed the need to have a balanced portfolio based on one’s risk appetite and age.  For each of these assets, he provided practical examples of how they impact, when and how it will suit, the tenure that you need to look at and gave illustrations on how they have performed over the last 20 – 30 years.  He also compared the various assets over this period to give the audience a clear picture of the overall returns on each of these assets for the same period.  He also covered the basic principles that you need to look out for in an insurance product and explained the pros and cons of term versus endowment insurance products. 

Shenoy’s session was followed by questions and answers.  Although the organizers had budgeted about 45 minutes, the session took almost 90 minutes. At the end, the audience felt time wasn’t enough and Shenoy had a lot more to offer.

Following the financial planning session, the focus shifted to the upcoming Global Convention ‘Entreprenet 2012’, being held in Mumbai on 13th and 14th January 2012. Ivan Fernandes explained what Entreprenet was all about and urged members to come forward and actively participate in the event. Around 500 delegates are expected to attend this event that is conducted jointly in association with Dimensions. The sessions and speakers have been carefully planned and chosen based on people’s preferences and ample time was given to network.

Induction ceremony of new members was held. Robert DSa, Managing Partner of Caesar Group U.A.E. was inducted as the Lead Member of KEL Dubai.

Alfred Vaz proposed ` the vote of thanks and invited the participants to network and dinner.