The Inkunzi Wealth Group Story

On the 1st of April 2012, we opened our doors for business in a tiny little office, which was also used as a kitchen by our landlord. I very well remember the constant (loud) disruptions when people randomly came in to use the kitchen. We had one department with two staff members – only focusing on share trading. A month later, we had our first client and R200 000 assets under management. A lot has changed from our humble beginnings and we have not looked back since then. That day represented a first step toward our purpose, which all of our colleagues continue to embrace and implement. I am writing to share with you our view of the first five years.

Purpose

South Africa has a large population that is not familiar with the wide range of financial solutions available in the market. We want to close the gap that is created by limited access to financial planning, which leads to a major part of the population lacking the knowledge to make informed financial planning decisions. We want to contribute to creating an environment where relevant investment platforms are easily accessible and available to all. Our commitment to this purpose is certainly not religious but we believe it’s a very smart way to do very good business.

We did not start our business with any profit projections or a sophisticated business plan. Our business was started on a set of guiding principles that we continue to uphold in managing our clients’ wealth. Our motivation for starting the business was simple: to empower our clients to achieve their financial goals. We wanted to build a business whose success is dependent on the client. All that remained was for us to put these principles into practice.

We drafted our business principles in 2012

These business principles are not just about our business culture, they lay out a series of statements about how to conduct our business and how to be truly professional. These principles are the centre of our competitive strategy and represent the only kind of firm at which any of us wants to work for:

• We exist to serve our clients – This is a great reminder that what we are doing is greater than our self-interest, and our behaviour must be guided by the interest of our clients.
• We strive for wealth management excellence – Ultimately, our dissatisfaction with the status quo is the driving force behind us wanting to be the best wealth management firm, rather than the biggest.
• We conduct our activities with integrity – Our clients trust our objectivity and no short-term gain should ever justify breaching that trust.
• We offer clients better value for money – We firmly believe that wealth management can only add value if it is relevant to the personal needs of the client.
• Clear and transparent communication – At all times we will use plain and understandable language in line with our commitment to simplicity, transparency, and acting in clients’ best interests.

Our independence matters

When our business was founded, our idea was to create a company that stood for stewardship. It would be independent, owned by staff members, and organized, operated, and managed for our clients’ benefit. We want to build a business model that would offer financial services in a better way than our rivals. We would do away with the structural limitations that hold back our industry from measuring up to its potential to serve the public. We would eliminate commissions as a reward system, and hence eliminate the potential conflicts that exist between the interests of clients and financial advisers. Sales people push clients into stupid decisions. As true stewards of our clients wealth, we don’t and won’t.

Clients

It is very simple: we have no business without clients. Of course, we can only expect clients to have faith in our efforts, if we communicate clearly, remain consistent in our approach and deliver on the promises we make. So far we appear to be on the right track in this regard. We are very fortunate to have a very loyal client base; a client base that actually takes interest in what we are doing for them. We feel that most five-year old wealth management firms would envy the type of client we have attracted to our business. We are humbled by the reception we continue to receive from you.

At this point, it might be appropriate to remind you of our ethos: “We’ll Hold Your Hand”. Clients who have been expertly coached in their financial lives are committed partners in seeing the relationship succeed. Not just their own financial lives, but the very relationship with the advisor as well. We expect you to commit to our partnership because you see how much we’ve committed to you, and, consequently, that commitment ends up as success.

Growth

Our business was not designed for the purpose of building market share. We view market share as a measure, and not an objective. We would focus, not on doing things because they would sell, but on doing things because they are right for our clients. We have formed working relationships with numerous service providers to add to our already existing service and product offering. This now makes us a one-stop shop for all your wealth management needs. This is a significant achievement for a business that only focused on share trading three years ago.

I recently read an interesting line in a leadership book which asked “If the company would no longer exist, what would society miss?” This is a newly adopted reflection point for our team. We have never had goals in terms of growth rates or assets under management. We want to provide a service that society needs and create value for its people. Growth will be a natural process if we focus on serving clients in areas where we have an advantage, and the results have been positive so far.

People

There is no substitute for our staff members who are responsible for producing these results. One common thread that brings us together, is that we are obsessed and passionate about educating clients about what we do, and generating good outcomes for them. We hire qualified professionals whose sense of satisfaction is derived from satisfied clients and team success.

Together we have created a pleasant working environment, in which team effort succeeds. I am proud to announce that 56% of our staff are female. This is very important for us, as we strive to create an environment where people are employed based on merit and not their gender orientation.

Plans for the future

We meet a lot of people who speak of Inkunzi Wealth Group as an established institution. Happily, I can tell you my colleagues and I still think of it as a start-up, and nothing could be better for the future. It means we are still engaged and excited, still worried that being too relaxed or too confident could cause us to fail, and still thinking about rising to meet the challenges ahead.

Our goals for the future are simple: more of the same. Relationships with clients who always feel they are treated fairly. We stress teamwork in everything we do, we have found that teams often produces the best results. And, as a result, prudent growth and sustainable profitability.