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Yet another product that defies the basic principle of not mixing insurance with investment.

Most insurance buyers forget one simple thing – they should be buying only life, health or any other cover from insurance companies. Instead they lose their focus and buy products, which are completely different in nature. Here we give you one such example.

Take for instance, HDFC Savings Assurance Policy. The marketing material of this policy reads something like this: “You need to plan today to ensure a bright future for your child, build your dream home and fulfil all your other aspirations. To help you realise your dreams, we present HDFC Savings Assurance Plan.” Interestingly, in spite of being an insurance policy, there is absolutely no mention of life insurance cover at all.

So what does this policy do? It is a profits’ savings policy and has the following features:

* There are simple reversionary bonuses, which are added annually

* On maturity, the policy pays out a basic maturity benefit and reversionary bonuses declared during the policy term.

On death during the first year, a sum equal to 80 per cent of premiums received is payable, implying that if you are paying a premium of Rs 1 lakh, you will only receive Rs 80,000 as the death benefit in the first year.

Further, on death after the first year and during the policy term, all premiums paid to date will be returned with compound interest calculated at 6 per cent a year, subject to a maximum of the sum assured plus reversionary bonuses declared to date.

This basically implies that you get the total premiums paid till date plus 6 per cent compound interest OR the maturity benefit plus any attaching bonuses, whichever is lesser.

Let us understand this with an example. Suppose you buy a policy for a yearly premium of Rs 1 lakh for 10 years and a maturity benefit of Rs 8.41 lakh. If you die after paying premiums for the first two years, your family will get Rs 2 lakh plus 6 per cent compound interest for 2 years, and not the sum assured or maturity benefit of Rs 8.41 lakh.

Also, if you pay 10 premiums, which is Rs 10 lakh and then die, you will get the lesser of Rs 8.41 lakh (plus any attaching bonuses) OR Rs 10 lakh (premiums paid) + 6 per cent.

Generally, endowment plans combine savings and protection. You are given a life cover just like any other insurance product. If you die during this period, your beneficiary will get whatever amount you are insured for plus any bonuses accrued during the period. If you survive the period, then on maturity, you get the sum assured plus all bonuses accrued in the policy. This kind of policy combines savings (because the money is given to you on maturity) with protection (your nominee gets an amount if you die).

However, the kind of life cover that you receive in this policy is quite low. What is the use of paying such high premiums when the insurance cover is so pathetic? Also, if this product is being positioned as an investment plan, then any debt instrument such as the Public Provident Fund (PPF) would give higher returns at 8 per cent.

On survival to the maturity date, the sum assured stated against HDFC Savings Assurance – Maturity Benefit plus any attaching bonuses is payable on the maturity date. This policy, in fact, provides one of the worst covers that we have witnessed in a long time.

Remember insurance is all about ensuring your family’s security in case something happens to you today. When a person could have got a decent cover of Rs 75 lakh by just paying Rs 19,500 annually, why does he have to pay five times that amount for a negligible cover?

The sum assured is just the premiums that you have paid plus some basic level of return. People often mix investments with insurance. This causes them to often look at the sum assured without understanding the death benefits of the policies in detail. At the same time, one gives a lot of weight to amount on maturity rather than on death benefit. Hence, people end up paying high premiums, but get a low cover. Stay away from such afflictions and do not mix insurance with investments.

Source: Business Standard

I had been struggling to put up a database of financial products on my personal finance website. It had to be a database where you can filter, view details and link to the relevant urls. And then I needed to put it on my Joomla site. The good news is that I have finally been able to do the thing! Take a look!

Financial Products in India

The database needs to be filled up and that will take time. But I am waiting for your suggestions on what information that you would like in the database.

My excitement at being able to do it is immense (Tweet)

Union Bank of India announced the launch of Wealth Management Services to its High Net worth Clients at Hyderabad today. The Bank has tied up with Wealth Advisors (India) Pvt Ltd; one of the leading companies in the Wealth Management space and Headquartered at Chennai for this initiative. With this offering the Bank plans to offer a wider range of solutions to its customers.

With the rapid economic growth the number of customers who look for Wealth Management services is constantly on the rise. In fact, India is one of countries in the world where the growth in the High Net worth Population is in double digits and it is expected to grow at around 15% per annum for the next decade. As per World Wealth Report published by Capgemini & Merrill Lynch, India has 123,000 people with a net worth of $1 million and registered a growth of 22.7% over the previous financial year. The Bank launched its Wealth Management Services offering to its clients at Bangalore on the 18th of August 2008.

Mr. M.V. Nair, Chairman & Managing Director, Union Bank of India said, “At present the bank has more than 500 HNI clients at Hyderabad and expect the number to grow multi-fold due to various transformations that have been initiated in its system. As a part of our re-branding strategy under a new logo, we have promised our customers to deliver value for money. The Launch of Wealth Management Service is a step towards fulfillment of this promise. The bank is moving towards being a “ Financial Super Market”. In this initiative Union Bank has tied up with an established partner like WAI in the field to offer financial solutions to our customers.

The Wealth Management service in India is at a nascent stage and provides ample opportunity for growth in the coming years. This initiative will go a long way in establishing Union Bank as a provider of total financial solutions to its customers.” The customers will be provided with entire spectrum of Wealth Management Services. The solutions proposed will integrate Income & Asset Protection (Insurance) as well as Wealth Creation and Preservation (Financial Planning, Asset allocation & Investment Management), which will ultimately facilitate in growing, preserving and transferring their wealth.

Here’s a problem of plenty! What do you do when you find that you have fifty odd Mutual Fund schemes that you have invested in and are not able to keep track.

It must have been really tough to keep track of all these schemes on a weekly or monthly basis.

There was a time when people would throng to NFOs, confusing them with initial public offer (IPOs) of companies. They assumed that since the share which gets listed on IPO price mostly zoom to new highs in no time, the same would happen with mutual fund NFOs, too.

But mostly people have figured out that it wouldn’t happen in the case of mutual fund schemes. This is because the scheme is collecting money to invest and its net asset value (price of a mutual fund unit) will go up only after the appreciation of investments.

However, some of us are quick to clarify that they invest in NFOs mainly because of their interesting themes. For example, we finds global gold scheme or a commodity scheme very attractive. However, this is permitted only if a small percentage of the corpus is used for this purpose. Otherwise, it could lead to complications. 

Also, without realising we take a large exposure to the particular sector, say infrastructure sector.
Our expert was finding it difficult in deciding which schemes to get rid of because of the presence of many schemes with very little track record.

According to financial advisors, this is not a rare problem. To begin with, they say, an investor should try to invest in a diversified scheme with a performance record of at least five years. After that, they can invest a small portion of their corpus to sectors like commodity, infrastructure, pharma and so on. However, they should remember that a sector is a risky investment option as it may go t h ro u g h p h a s e s of high and low. Lastly, under no circumstances you should have more than six schemes in your portfolio.

Otherwise, monitoring them could be a problem.

• Almost two years after the UPA government referred the Insurance Amendment Bill aimed at raising the foreign direct investment cap in the sector from 26% to 49%to a Group of Ministers (GoM), the panel finally paved the way for the Bill to be introduced in Parliament.

Besides increasing the foreign investment cap, other proposed amendments would allow Indian promoters to continue to hold a majority stake in insurance companies. They would also allow public sector non-life insurers to sell a minority stake to raise capital. The proposed revisions would enable foreign reinsurance companies to enter the Indian market as well.

The reforms will require amendments to the Insurance Act, 1938; LIC Act, 1956; IRDA Act, 1999; and General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972.

Finance Minister, during his speech while inaugurating the Currency Futures Trading made a pertinent point.

Financial markets have continued to produce a multitude of new products including many new forms of derivatives, alternative risk transfer products, exchange traded funds and variants of equity. We in India have adopted all these slowly, some of these products but with considerable success. However, I may note that many years after these ideas were mooted we had to wait. For example, stock index futures took 5 years to be offered to investors after it was first conceived; exchange traded funds for Gold took 4 years to become a reality; interest rate derivatives though launched in 2003 have not taken off. These experiences highlight the risky environment that financial innovation faces in this country. This should change.

Galileo I believe said doubt is the father of invention; if I may add, doubting Thomases are impediments to progress. We need to continue to innovate and improve in the design of financial products.

Check out more excerpts here

Personal Finance is a “threatening” concept and most people phase out when money/ savings/ investing/ tax/ stocks/ insurance/ funds are discussed. After tackling them over the last one year on my blog and website , I hope to construct an easy-to-digest, friendly e-book that people want to read and understand!

This e-book is only 21 pages and will not take more than an hour to go through. No matter who you are and what you earn, my feeling is that this one hour can help you understand money and change a lot of things for you, for the better!

Personal Finance is about managing your own money. There are scores of books and courses to manage the finance of your business or a Company. Then there are books on finances of the Government (Monetary, Fiscal Economics).

But are there enough for managing your own finances? Which is equally, if not more, important for all of us. And moreover it’s simple and not rocket science!

Download the eBook

Unit linked Insurance Plans (ULIP) provide the twin benefit of providing the benefits of investing in the stock market and covering your risks. It is important to understand that a Unit Linked Life Insurance product is different from the traditional insurance products and are subject to the risk factors.

The premium paid in Unit Linked Life Insurance policies are subject to investment risks associated with capital markets and the NAVs of the units may go up or down based on the performance of fund and factors influencing the capital market and the insured is responsible for his/her decisions.

Other than the fact that the investment risk in investment portfolio is borne by the policyholder, let us take a look at the different charges in a ULIP.

There are a few parameters like the flexibility of premium paying term, the amount of cover available for disability, illness and accident which has a wider variation among the Insurers.

I dislike the heavy premium allocation being charged. Out of the Rs 100 you pay to your Insurer, only Rs 70 odd goes to your investments (Rs30 in case of HDFC!!) 

Compared to 5-7% return on conventional products, ULIP looks attractive. But is it for real?

I did some number crunching assuming the stock market growing by 20% and found that in three years the return on principal fund is less than 5%. This is because huge part of the policyholder money is adjusted towards allocation charges.

Maybe with a longer run, the ULIPs will harvest a better return!

You readers have helped me and my small & young blog (not even one year old) to dream of constructing India’s first online weekly on personal finance. When you check it out, you’ll see a forum, an advisor’s directory, a blog and sections on Mutual Funds, Stocks, ETF, Insurance, etc.

And a section for Foreword too. I want you to contribute to that. I’ll be the happiest person to post your thoughts in that section.

I want you to give your personal finances a thought and check whether you are on the right track. Or are there things you would try to improve? What is the importance of money to you? Is it evil or a necessity? What is your expectation from the site?

These thoughts can form part of your foreword.

Ajay Shah has uploaded this article by John Echeverri-Gent on the Politics of market microstructure [pdf] about the reforms of the Indian equity market. It is forthcoming in a book: India’s Economic Transition: The Politics of Reform, edited by Rahul Mukherji, Oxford, 2007.

Some excerpts out of the 30 odd pages:

• He examines the politics of equity market microstructure in India. It argues that officials in the Ministry of Finance generated much of the impetus for reform. Three factors motivated these officials to become agents of change. First, their experience made them acutely aware that public sector resources were inadequate to meet India’s developmental needs. Second, as the 1990s progressed they were increasingly aware of the global best practices that developedin the wake of technological change. Finally, the legal infrastructure that regulated Indian equity markets provided them tremendous authority over the exchanges. Under the Securities Contracts (Regulation Act) 1956, the Ministry of Finance enjoyed the power to grant or withdraw recognition to any stock exchange. It also had the power to direct the exchanges to make or amend their rules, supersede the governing body of any exchange, and suspend the business of an exchange.

• By 2001, reforms brought India up to par with the global standards for virtually every aspect of its equity market microstructure. The ‘open outcry’system that restricted trading to the floors of stock exchanges in India’s metropolises was replaced by screen-based, electronic order-book systems that instantaneously linked traders across the country through the world’s first satellite trading system. Virtually all trading took place on a dematerialized basis through a central depository. The deeply flawed account period settlement system was replaced by a T+2 rolling settlement that is one of the most efficient systems in the world, and badla or carry-forward trading gave way to a rapidly developing derivatives market. As a consequence of these changes, the total value of transactions in securities has grown dramatically over the last ten years from Rs 1.7 billion in 1994–5 to Rs 50.8 billion in 2003–4.

• All this is not to suggest that no problems remain. The micromarket structure of the primary market (despite its revival since 2003–4, in part because of the introduction of a screen-based book-building system) is still in need of reform. The share of household savings invested in securities is small and has declined since the early 1990s. The mutual fund industry remains underdeveloped, and the regulatory capacity of SEBI needs enhancement.

• Nonetheless, the transformation of Indian equity markets is a remarkably successful chapter in the story of India’s economic reform.Three factors help to explain this success. First, technological change in the form of electronic trading systems and the development of new financialproducts created substantial opportunity costs to maintaining the status quo. Second, in the context of India’s balance of payments crisis in 1991, officials in the Ministry of Finance were motivated by their growing awareness of global best practices to use their authority to modernize India’s capital market. Finally,India’s politicians and reformers in the Ministry of Finance had a relatively low ‘political cost-benefit ratio’ for reforming equity markets.

Go read the entire article here