Hansi Mehrotra, CFA, is the Founder of The Money Hans, a personal finance education blog aimed at retail investors and the Founder and Editor of Money Management India. Mehrotra has over 20 years of financial services industry experience, primarily in online delivery of investment research and consulting for the wealth management industry. Mehrotra also led several projects in India, including the design of the investment options for the National Pension Scheme. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Delhi University and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investments. She is also one of the earliest #CFAwomen in India.
Growing up, Hansi Mehrotra had a challenging childhood followed by a string of unfortunate events. However, she adds that successfully overcoming these life events has emboldened her skill of adaptability and resiliency. Mehrotra’s parents were divorced when she was only nine years old, which forced her and her brother to move from Germany to their grandmother’s house in a small town in India in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh. Talking about the grave challenge she was presented with at the time, she says, “We had to adapt to the language, culture and most importantly, we had to adjust with living without parents.”
However, she was later reunited with her father, who served as her role model in learning about the importance and concept of money. She says, “He would double the value of what we saved from our monthly pocket money, but on one condition: the whole amount had to be put into the bank for compounding.” In addition, she also learnt the values of respect and empathy from him. She recalled, “He always took care of his mother but always made her feel needed as well.”
Unfortunately, her father soon passed away, leaving her and her brother grappling with funds. But despite all her hardships, Mehrotra paved her way to a bright future. She says, “I’m proud to have a successful career despite not attending college as I got my degree through correspondence and paying for my post-graduate degree while working full-time. All these turbulent moments in my life, including my divorce and depression, have made me who I am.”
She started her career in finance as an Investment Advisor at Money Matters Pty Ltd, followed by nine years at van Eyk Research, one of Australia’s most influential research houses. Mehrotra then spent another nine years at Mercer, setting up their wealth management business which provides research and consulting to the wealth management industry.
She says, “Having made it to one of the world’s largest firms in investment consulting, I felt privileged to know how large institutions and wealthy people manage their money.” She continued, “I started blogging on investor education on LinkedIn in 2015 as it has been an interest since 1999 when van Eyk set up an investor education business. I now want to make that knowledge and skill more accessible for the common man so that women and girls can have the opportunities I never had.”
Mehrotra has always excelled in knowing the fundamentals of investment and stocks and has since made it her goal to post, write, and record podcasts on the subject to educate others on the finer aspects of investment. Her partnership with Franklin Templeton led to the podcast series Meri Pyaari Saheliyan. While with Yahoo, she released a video series #AskHansi on personal finance and investing that was an instant hit. Her passion for empowering women and guiding others to financial literacy eventually led to the genesis of The Money Hans in 2015, an independent financial education initiative to educate and empower Indians to gain financial literacy and take charge of their money.
In 2021, Mehrotra founded her second organization, Money Management India, designed as a B2B portal. Money Management India aims to help connect professionals in the Indian financial services industry involved in retail or institutional savings (i.e. the buy side). It also serves as a central resource for overseas investors investing in India.
She says, “We are now expanding into the intermediary space by developing a research process. We are about to launch integrated research and education to attract more people, especially women taking career breaks for various reasons who would like to enter the financial advice industry.”
As a regular on LinkedIn and Twitter, she was named as the LinkedIn TopVoices for Finance globally in 2015, as a PowerProfile for India in 2017 & 2018 and the TopVoices for India in 2018 and 2020.
In conclusion, Mehrotra says, “Always be MoneyConfident, ladies,” as she embarks on busting myths and furthering her goal of financial literacy in India.
