Sivadeet Baruah
Tell us about your role and your team.
I am responsible for the individual life business at Sukoon Insurance. I manage the investment, product, underwriting, operations, and IT segments within the life unit and develop new strategies for the future growth of the business line. I am supported by a strong and extremely capable team in each of these segments that help us manage and grow our business.
How many fund houses do you work with and how many funds are on your product shelf?
We are currently dealing with about 40 fund houses and have about 300+ funds on our platform including nearly 140 open for new business. The list will change shortly with our recent acquisition of the Generali UAE portfolio, where all funds offered under the Generali products will also be onboarded in the Sukoon platform.
What new strategies have you selected this year?
We have not made any significant changes to our existing strategies as we believe our current list of funds covers the whole spectrum and is in line with our risk appetite. We have tried to innovate a little by onboarding some thematic equity technology strategies because of their strong performance and promising outlook.
What gaps are you looking to close in 2023? Are any of your products at risk of being removed? If so, in which area?
None of our products are at risk of removal. Our list is quite well diversified and goes through a rigorous selection process. However, we are constantly looking to identify the gaps that we have versus what our clients need, so we are always open to exploring new strategies and innovative solutions. Nevertheless, as an insurance company, we always have to consider the risk/return matrix and we carefully look at this parameter before choosing our funds. We try to avoid high-risk strategies and usually stick to a well-diversified portfolio within a fund.
Which sectors have been most popular with your clients this year?
Equity multi-sector funds have dominated the selection this year, as they did in 2021. Healthcare, followed by energy, have also had some take-up this year from our clients and distributors. Overall, both still prefer equity strategies and that’s the beauty of our business since the full value chain has a long-term outlook of performance.
Are Shariah-compliant funds fulfilling your expectations and what can asset managers do to meet the demand for these products?
We do have Shariah-compliant strategies on our platform and generally they have been good performers. However, we are yet to see strong demand for such strategies, probably because we are a conventional insurance company and most of our clients are not looking for specific Shariah funds.
Sum up your investment philosophy in a few words.
Before onboarding any new fund, we always look at it from a retail client’s perspective, who probably will not have much knowledge or experience in investment markets. It is our role to ensure that we do not expose our clients to unnecessary risks by simply looking at the performance and ignoring associated risks. We need to have a vision of 10 or 15 years as this is the average duration of our policies.
From your perspective what are the most important traits in a manager?
We favour managers who are proactive and engage with our sales team. Engagement is the biggest reason, along with fund performance, that drives assets under management. We encourage our fund management partners to meet our team, share knowledge, expertise and create additional values.
What is your biggest concern in the current market situation?
The Russia-Ukraine war is our biggest concern. Markets are quite volatile and there is not much stability. We understand the situation and consistently tell our clients to take a long-term view and take benefit of averaging, but retail clients always panic when a downturn happens. This conflict is not helping our clients to build confidence in the markets.
What is the most useful career tip you have been given?
Short term is for speculators and long term is for investors. Always think long.
Who are you supporting at the World Cup?
I was, am and will always be a loyal Argentina fan.