Cycas Investment Advisors is a SEBI-registered investment advisory firm that provides wealth management services to high net worth clients and treasury advisory services to corporate clients. Beginning as an equity advisory service in 2019, Cycas quickly found that many clients did not have any tangible/systematic/well thought out wealth management plan in place, and so ended up managing their money in an ad hoc manner. Absent a holistic portfolio level view, these portfolios were messy, inefficient, high cost, and did not meet client goals. Cycas believed that it simply wasn’t ethically prudent to add it services to these chaotic portfolios. Further, it was impossible to identify if Cycas’ equity advisory service was complementary/added value to client portfolios.

In 2020 a pivotal decision was made to focus solely on solving this problem. Despite it’s rapid growth and bright future, the Indian wealth management industry is an example of extreme dysfunction. Misselling by sales agents (also known as relationship managers) at large financial institutions is a key contributor to the ad hocism observed in client portfolios. Large wealth management firms, some of which are even listed on the stock market, are admittedly slightly better. However they too are beset with non-alignment of incentives, conflicts of interests, and, like their bank counterparts/parents, are more in the business of sales than service. 

Amid this context Cycas believes there is an unmet need for independent fee-only investment advice from someone operating in a fiduciary role. Financial objectives and goals determine quality of life for many people. A realistic and objective approach to wealth management prepares people better for their futures, often allowing them a better quality of life than they would otherwise have had. Slowly but surely, this business model is becoming more accepted in India, helped only slightly by SEBI’s ever present heavy hand.

Ajay Sharma is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Cycas Investment Advisors. Having been a keen market observer for most of his life, he has been an active participant in Indian capital markets since 2013. Ajay’s journey through the morass of the Indian stock market has been lucrative owing to his belief in Skepticism, focus on developing a divergent perspective, and conservative investment philosophy. It is his belief that these characteristics applied to wealth management portfolios can achieve a more socially efficient outcome.

Ajay holds a B.Sc in financial economics and M.A. in economics from the University of Toronto and is also CFA Charterholder.