When S came to meet me in 2009 she had money in the early 2 digit crores…surely more than enough for a 48 year old retiree. I spoke to her, but the glamour of a suave ‘beta’ kind of a Foreign bank was greater…and there she went.

That guy told her the following things:

– Your son does not have a proper job, so he cannot invest in mutual funds.

– The best investments for you are ULIP and structured deals in RE.

– For liquidity you should leave substantial amounts in the savings bank (about 10 years expenses were lying in the SB account)

-Obviously they were a ‘Premium’ account holder.

– the real estate deals are of course a lemon. A dried one at that, you cannot even make a lemonade.

– the RM left the bank and joined a more shady Indian “Wealth damagement” organisation and did a couple of deals with them.

– he has now joined the bank again (came back to the bank) and has sold them another big ULIP which the client can ill afford.

-Oh far more importantly neither the lady nor the son are employed.

Moral of the story?

– If God gave you money it does not mean he gave you money management skills.

– If you do not understand what your bank RM is telling you, say NO.

– If you do not understand what your bank RM is telling you , at least understand that you do not understand.

– You have no excuse to live in a city like Delhi / any other Metro and pretend that you ‘trusted’ the RM

– trusting the RM in most cases a case of being lazy.

– The first transaction could have been bad, but allowing him to cheat you continually for 3 years is STUPIDITY.

– Why the hell would you buy property in locations that you have no hope of visiting or understanding

– Why would you pay interests to a builder at a dramatically high rate when you had money sitting in your SB account?

– whoever you are dealing with you have to check the documents that are coming to you. Simple.

Solution? Search me!!