Investor's Investment Knowledge

Investor’s Investment Knowledge

I still see in our country that people do not have financial literacy. They do not know the proper process for investment. They still believe in fix deposit, purchasing land or LIC policies etc without any knowledge of any investment objective. The worst thing is that they still believe LIC endowment policies are the best option for long term investment. There are need for each investor to know about the investment product in detail in which they are going to invest.

For example in most of cases people who have LIC policies do not know about their risk cover and expected return at the end of tenure. It is my personal experience that 90% of policy holders do not know about their sum assured and expected return. Only they know about that premium amount which they are paying every year. They even do not serious about to know about inflation and real rate of return. Many investor invest in land for short term period like 6 months or 1 year without any idea of capital gain tax and liquidity.

The proper way for investment is that first, you should clear about your investment horizon after that check whether your investment will beat the inflation. After deduction taxes and adjusting inflation what will be your real rate of return? These type of question should be answered by your financial adviser or company agent.

Please keep in mind there is huge difference between company agent and financial adviser. Financial adviser will help you plan to your investment and future goal in realistic and prudent way. Other side the agent will be more interested for their commission only. The agent has not much concern about your hard earned investment or your future goal. Their main objective is to take your sign on the form, collect the investment amount cheque and get the commission in their pocket.

The agent, only advise you about the product for a one particular company. In other side the financial adviser will suggest you the best option available in the market. The reason for this that the adviser do not work for any one particular company.

My suggestion for all of you is that when you plan for your investment, please never go after emotional advertisement and you should have fair idea about liquidity, time frame, inflation, real rate of return and your future goal of investment. It is responsibility of all advisers and agents that they should give the proper detail of financial product to the investors.

If you have doubt about investment product and want more information regarding investment or you need investment services, feel free to ask us. We also conduct the seminar on investment and financial planning. If you are interested for conducting seminar in your city, just drop the mail.

Warm regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

Basic rules for investing

New Year, New Hopes and revisit some basic investment rules

First of all Very Happy and prosperous year 2013 to all of you. New year has already begun with new hope and optimisim in equity market. Yesterday, Nifty and Sensex were closed at 2 year high and now the market sentiments appear quiet positive in near term. Today I will not write lengthy article. At the beginning  of year, it is important to make some financial resolution and don’t repeat past mistakes.

There are few basic investment rules of investing and I am sure many of those rules you already know. I am attempting here to those rule revisit in very compact manner.

1)   Before make any investment decision, first know your networth.

2)   Be clear about your financial goal and honestly asses your needsand income

3)   Don’t investment in hurry and never investment in those products which you don’t understand

4)   If you have not properly insured then calculate your actually needed insurance cover and purchase term insurance online if possible

5)   Purchase mediclaim policy and personal accident policy also as it is very important

6)   Understand your risk appetite. If you cannot see 25% value erosion of your portfolio then stock market is not right place for you.

7)   If you are near about retirement please keep away from ULIP and insurance like product and reduce your equity investment and increase debt portfolio.

8)   Track your portfolio time to time and change your asset allocation according to time frame of your goal and market condition.

9)   Always pay your credit card bill on time as it has very high interest charges.

10)                If you feel any problem to understand or you have not enough time to take care of your investment find one financial planner and discuss with him about your financial planning and doubt.

There are much more basic rules and we will discuss about them this entire year in detail. Once again I wish for all of you a very happy, Healthy and prosperous year.

Regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

Mantra for wealth creating in long term

When you have read the above heading before read the entire article it seems very exciting. Most of the person may think that there would be a unique formula for wealth creation in this article but I would share some important guideline and principle which seem very simple but I am sure implementing this is not so simple. For implementing these mantras of growing wealth, one need to understand the logic and the concept of wealth creating from root level. So now I am going to share with you some principal to become successful investor.

(A) Find a good financial planner and discuss with him about your near and future financial goal, your current asset and liabilities and other vital information asked by the planner. A financial planner will definitely help you to educate about basic money management, to know your risk profile, make financial plan, informed  investment decision and goal based financial plan.

(B) Make regular investment through SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) and get benefit of rupee cost averaging. Recommended SIP by your financial planner will help you to create wealth in long term. Patience is the key to successful investing. Stay invested through entire market cycle whether bull or bear. Never try to time the market, invest in both bull and bear market and reap the benefit of wealth creation.

(C) Be in touch with your planner and discuss about the market environment. If need then rebalance your portfolio according to market phase after discussing with your planner. 

(D) Stay away from complex product like ULIP. Keep simple approach towards investment, not indulge with these product which you don’t understand properly. Invest in those products which are transparent and you understand better.

(E) Never mix your insurance and investment need. There is not a single product in the market which fulfill your insurance and investment need both.

(F)  Choose your financial planner very carefully because it is like your family doctor. Ask educational and professional qualification and assess the knowledge of your planner.

(G) Start investment as early as possible. If you delay one year your investment you will loose as much as you cannot imagine. For understand it better discuss it with your planner.

(H) Don’t invest not only for tax deduction purpose, understand risk, return and your need also. Make your tax plan at the beginning of financial year and avoid march month tax saving race.

The above mentioned few mantras are essential for every successful investor. For understanding it in detail contact any qualified financial planner. Keep it in your mind and think about this before you going for any investment.

If you have any query regarding investment please feel free to ask.

Regards,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner

arvind.trivedi79@gmail.com

Misselling of Financial product

Dear reader,

Now a days most of us  are victim of a misselling of financial product but few days back I was shocked when I had read  one article in Moneylife Magazine which is very popular magazine among investors for its true and honest view on all the financial product and services . Below is the same article which I read on the Moneylife site :

HSBC loots Suchitra Krishnamoorthi after big promises of 24% returns :

Moneylife Digital Team

This can happen to you—bank customers beware. Lack of financial literacy can cost you big time as reputed banks target the gullible with money to spare. PMS, insurance, loans are pushed by relationship managers to make a killing, at your cost!

HSBC Bank took Ms Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, a well-known singer and actor, for a ride over a five year period by promising an extravagant assured return of 24% from mutual funds as well as insurance. Each time the customer complained about losses in her account, the standard reply was that the relationship manager has been fired and that the bank will make up for the losses with judicious investments. Needless to say, the losses were never made good. The one-way road for the customer was downhill. If a well-known celebrity could be cheated with such impunity, it is surely happening routinely with others.

It is a case of systematic looting and exploitation of emotionally vulnerable who had got Rs3.6 crore as part of a settlement in September 2006. The money was supposed to be the means of livelihood for herself and for her daughter. The bank used confidential information about the hefty deposit in her savings account and began to market its toxic services to her. Since bankers are seen as trustworthy, she believed that her relationship manager was advising her correctly.

The modus operandi for HSBC in this case has been a combination of toxic churning of the portfolio management system (2% entry load on every purchase made by it on behalf of client), insurance products promising 24% returns, insisting her on taking a loan instead of withdrawing funds without even disclosing that the client was entitled for a smart loan.

The end result after five years was Rs83 lakh—direct loss from investment, Rs29 lakh in commission to HSBC, Rs8 lakh (50% of investment) lost from an insurance policy, Rs10 lakh (again, 50% of investment) valuation decline in insurance policy still in force, Rs4.5 lakh tax paid on redemption of short-term mutual funds (including Rs1.85 lakhpenalty to the Income Tax department due to non-disclosure of gain by HSBC to the client) and Rs58 lakh interest on home loan earned by the bank.

When Suchitra wished to surrender her insurance policies, HSBC refused to act for her by contending that they no longer had any tie-up with Tata AIG and that it was not their business to get client’s money back that they had recommended in the first place.

Apart from the losses, the so-called customer service was pathetic after the relationship started getting sour. The bank was appallingly evasive and non cooperative even for basic requests such as furnishing of documents or revoking power of attorney for the investment portfolio. It took the bank four months and repeated requests to furnish inchoate standard forms that Suchitra had signed at the time of appointing HSBC as her portfolio manager. Moreover, the documentation was incomplete.

According to Suchitra, “It took my chartered accountant six months to authenticate the figures of losses—as not only was the HSBC team adept at covering its paper trail. They also very conveniently refused/evaded furnishing me the documents to which I am legally entitled for over a year—giving me one silly excuse after another like mismatch of signature/officers being on leave, etc.”

She adds, “While I was warned that the legal system in India is such that the matter will drag on forever probably causing me further expenditure and loss of peace of mind and reputation, I was determined to see this through. It is my moral responsibility and a warning to other vulnerable targets—small investors like me should not get conned by aggressive MBA's in suits who are preying on their customers like sharks in the big bad ocean. All the while getting richer and richer while making us smallgold fish go bust.”

Last year Moneylife Foundation had conducted a seminar with Ravi Subramanian, banker and author of three well-known books like “If God Was a Banker”, “I Bought the Monk’s Ferrari” and “Devil in Pinstripes”. According to him, “Banks and relationship managers often indulge in cross-selling to earn more revenues and therefore, the customer has to be more careful while dealing with them. Bankers become ‘bhayankar’ when they fail to deliver what they have promised and try to hard-sell products on which they earn more money to the gullible customers. A customer can protect himself from falling into the hands of mercenary bankers by being alert, vigilant and at the same time doing due diligence.”Link to the article - http://www.moneylife.in/article/hsbc-loots-suchitra-krishnamoorthi-after-big-promises-of-24-returns/24975.html#.T4laTfnc8_o.email

I would welcome your suggestion / comments if any or if you also have been a victim of such mis-selling then you can share with us.

Also, pls forward this email to as many friends / relatives as possible and hopefully they may also benefit out of it.

Regards ,

Arvind Trivedi

Certified Financial Planner