Yesterday a cousin had to convert a pension plan to an annuity, and he had sought my advise. He had an accumulation of a small amount to be converted. They had sent him a form to his residence – he had filled it up and brought it. The form was complete in all respects…so he […]

Read More →

Let us look at a fictitious conversation between a ‘Super Senior Vice President – Strategy and Execution’ and an IFA: Sir my client, Subra, has invested in our company’s ULIP with the least fund management charges…but it is doing very badly…what should I do? Sir my client is not a  greedy or a crazy guy, […]

Read More →

This is a very broad question and the answer is not easy to give. First of all let us clear some myths about what the retail investor thinks a regulator should do and what the regulator actually does. 1. The regulator is here to protect the small investor: Very very very broadly yes, in real […]

Read More →

Two mutual fund agents had similar stories to tell. Am not sure whether other IFAs too have a similar story to tell, but here it is.. I F A grievances: 1. Clients are short term pleasure seekers: both the IFAs have been in the business for more than 10 years and have upwards of 500 […]

Read More →

When asked about Retirement, normally people are in a denial mode. Why even ask them ‘What will your family do, if you drop dead’…is a question they hate to hear. They even hate me for asking these questions. It is difficult to know what to do…so best is either do not do anything or speak […]

Read More →

I remember a friend saying when he got a tip to buy a share the first thing he would ask the person is – will I be able to sell 500,000 shares without impacting the price of the share? Accumulation happens over a long time, however exit could happen suddenly and swiftly. Also the company […]

Read More →

Not sure whether I have written about this friend of mine who does a very different type of SIP… He started his SIPs some time in 1998-9 and is now a ‘bhakt’ of the SIP concept. Let me explain how he went about investing. Let us say he started with a SIP of Rs. 2500 […]

Read More →