Either I am being very touchy about ULIPs or Endowment plans in general or too many pro-ulip articles are appearing in the print media also. The big worry about using numbers in an example is to know enough about statistics – mean, median, mode, standard deviation and NOISE. Noise is the distortion that is caused […]
True or False: Regulators are appointed to: a) protect the customers b) protect the manufacturers c) regulate and develop the industry d) to speak the language of the strongest manufacturer and help the well established ones. Zero marks to people who chose a, b or c. Let us take the Insurance Regulator’s role. EXAMPLE ONE […]
Once upon a time long, long ago I used to be a fan of Ayn Rand’s books! This must have been circa 1980 when I was a student and believed that there is a perfect world…and it exists in the world occupied by the White Man. It was a time when it was easy to […]
I had to do this column. Not because ulips are God’s gift to mankind, but unit linked insurance plan that I bought (circa 2004, much before the media decided that ulips are bad). I bought unit linked insurance (and continue to own them) from Hdfc Standard Life Insurance company. Here are the details for the […]
A friend asked me to see value research online – and see the lead story on why you should distrust your adviser. I was amused because ‘How to select a financial adviser’ is a topic with which I have often grappled for and on behalf of many friends. Let us take a typical ‘media’ answer […]
The greatest wealth in the world has not been created by inheritance – but by investing! It is only this generation that can make this comment. We are lucky to be living in times when we can make this statement. Let us take examples of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, L N Mittal, Azim Premji, Ambani, […]
In what was being seen as a turf battle between sebi and irda, the winner as of now seems to be Irda. It shows the power of the people in the life Insurance business. Now if you have LIC, SBI, Hdfc, Icici, …each with a few ‘000 crores of stake in the insurance business and […]