The market regulator SEBI has urged investors to deal only with SEBI Registered Investment Advisers(RIAs)  to avail investment advisory services. In fact, the market regulator has urged people to look at the list of SEBI RIAs on its website before availing investment advisory services. Further, SEBI has advised investors to pay advisory fees through banking channels such as NEFT, IMPS or cheque and maintain the duly signed receipt with details of payments. As on May 2018, the total number of SEBI RIAs was 918 throughout the country. Of them, over half of them are individuals. Do’s while dealing with Investment […]

Regular and Direct Mutual Fund Products  The Mutual Fund AMCs design regular products factoring two components; i.e. the management expenses and the commission. When the investors buy Regular MFs; the embedded Commission in it is passed on to the Distributors and Banks. It is like selling branded medicines. But now SEBI has directed AMCs to design Direct MF schemes without the commission in it. It is like generic medicines. These are transparent and the investors do not pay for the Commission component. These are not offered by the Distributors and Banks but by the SEBI Registered Investment Advisers (RIA).There is an element of […]

SEBI has directed all the Fund houses(AMCs) to recategorise all their schemes into 36 categories from 30th June 2018 ; Equity(10),Debt (16),Hybrid(6),Solutions(2) and others(2). As a consequence, the names and strategies of many schemes have undergone changes. It is quite challenging for the investor to assess and select the schemes based on historical returns and ratings. Retail investors who have invested earlier based on historical parameters will, all of a sudden, find that some good schemes selected by them are no more doing well. It will be advisable to seek the help of a professional and preferably, a SEBI investment […]

If you want to file your Income Tax return on your own, you can do it; 1. If you are a first-time return-filer, register yourself on the income tax department‘s official e-filing portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. Your permanent account number (PAN) acts as your user ID. 2. Keep key documents handy, including the Form 16, Form 26AS (tax credit statement), bank statements, copy of return filed last year, capital gains statement from mutual funds and brokers. 3. Go to the ‘Download’ tab to download the ITR preparation software (JAVA or Excel utility) for the relevant assessment year (Current one is 2018-19). 4. […]

More than 80% of investments of Individuals are in real estate and around 10% in Gold and Silver. The remaining are in financial assets i.e Bank Deposits, Insurance and Mutual Funds etc. Currently the appreciation in real estate prices has stagnated and so also in gold. So physical assets no more  provide better return than the financial assets.In financial assets the equity as an asset class has outperformed  other financial assets. The reduction in the interest rate of Bank Deposits has caused a lot of concern for retired people. Approach by Individual Investors An individual investor should look at the […]

SEBI Registered Investment Advisers (RIA) provide right financial advice and act in clients’ interest. RIAs are like Financial Doctors and are different from Distributors and Banks. RIAs focus more on advice where as Distributors including Banks focus more on products; just  like selling medicines. Regular and Direct Mutual Fund Products  The Mutual Fund AMCs design regular products factoring two components; i.e. the price of the product and the commission. When the investors buy Regular MFs; the  embedded Commission in it  is  passed on  to the Distributors  and Banks. It is like selling branded medicines. But now SEBI has directed AMCs […]

Creating and managing a portfolio by the investor requires investment decisions to be made on which asset classes to invest in, how to invest, timing of entry & exits and review & rebalancing the portfolio. These decisions have to be based on the analysis of available information so that they reflect the expected performance and risks associated with the investment. Very often the decisions are influenced by behavioral biases, which lead to less than optimal choices being made. Some of the well documented biases that are observed in decision making are;  Greed and Fear These are the most common biases […]

Traditionally women are better at managing family’s budget and are more concerned about children’s education and marriage. We find women groups take to streets when prices of vegetables and other essential items increase beyond tolerable levels. Nowadays increasing number of women are opting for career in regular jobs. It provides them opportunity for financial independence. It is high time for women to take control of their finance for the following reasons; (1)   Increasing divorce rates – India is witnessing a surge in divorce rates and therefore entrusting the spouse with financial matters can create money crunch. It is prudent to keep a […]

Asset Classes There are four major asset classes; Real Estate & Gold under physical assets and Equity & Debt under financial assets. The trend of physical assets providing higher return is now reversing. Real Estate: Real estate investment is indivisible and illiquid. It carries liquidity risk. It may take longer time to find a buyer for selling the property and hence one must invest in real estate only if one wants to remain invested for longer period. Further real estate prices are correcting and may not provide the higher return it has generated in the past. Gold: Investing in physical gold and ornaments depresses return due to making […]

The cost of education is rising every year. Educating a child has become quite expensive now days. Warren Buffet says “The perfect amount to spend on children is  enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.“ Spending on children’s education is an investment. Many parents do not have an idea about the surprise and shock they may get if funding for children’s education are not planned in advance. It  always pays if one starts saving and investing early. We have made estimation on the funding cost of the newly born […]