PERSONAL FINANCE


Moneylife Digital Team 23 December 2011
The RBI says that the competition in this space, which was non-existent earlier, could rise as banks with lower CASA ratio could rush to gain such deposits by raising rates The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its Financial Stability Report (FSR) for December 2011, warns that competition among...

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Raj Pradhan  and   Rushab Dhandokia 22 December 2011
The cost of opting for arbitration proceedings could be as high as Rs10 lakh to Rs15 lakh, excluding lawyers’ fees. Therefore it is advisable to go in for arbitration only in cases where the claim amount is significantly higher than the cost. Since an insurance policy is a contract, the...

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Moneylife Digital Team 22 December 2011
Angel Swift is unique because it is simple to download and a user friendly application which runs on multiple devices, a robust tool that makes online trading seamless. Angel Broking, the first movers in online and mobile trading have launched Angel Swift the mobile trading service for retail...

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Raj Pradhan  and   Rushab Dhandokia 19 December 2011
According to advocate Singh, The policyholder should be educated not to accept the discharge voucher in the first instance itself if he is not satisfied with the amount specified in it or which is being offered. At this instance only he should invoke the arbitration clause to which the company...

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Last week we published a review of Nokia’s latest ‘Lumia 800’ based on technical specifications of the mobile. However to our surprise, it attracted number of comments, mostly abusive, from none other than Nokia and Microsoft employees and associates Last Friday, I wrote an article about the

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Do you need a financial planner or an advisor? Probably both Recently, I was reading an article by an expert on “Financial Planning” in The Economic Times. It was an eye-opener for me. Briefly, he said that everyone must save one-third of one’s ‘net’ income; spend one-third and the balance...

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Moneylife Digital Team 19 December 2011
The high-level expert committee on health headed by Dr K Srinath Reddy has proposed tax hikes on salaried and individual taxpayers to fund universal health coverage (UHC). This comes at a time when the government is planning to double the public financing on health—from 1.2% of the GDP to...

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Except may be backing of a bigshot like Microsoft, there is nothing in Nokia Lumia 800 that can make it compete with other smartphones from Samsung or HTC. Launching handsets in the league of Apple iPhone is still a miles away dream for Nokia Before I start, let me confess that this review is...

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Raj Pradhan  and   Rushab Dhandokia 15 December 2011
Nagesh Kini, who was auditor of general insurance companies, believes that the Insurance Ombudsman is a great option due to low cost, simple procedures and speedy redressal, even though it may take longer than mandated Nagesh Kini has been an auditor of general insurance companies and General...

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Everyone wants to have  adequate funds in their retirement years. Raj Pradhan explores whether pension products offered by life insurance and mutual fund companies are safe and smart options In mid-2007, Rajshekhar (name changed) visited ICICI Bank to renew his fixed deposits. The bank...

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ING Life retirement planning advertisement in ET Wealth made misleading assumptions. ING responded to our article. Here are ING’s faulty responses defending the flawed retirement path it advertised. Is IRDA listening? Upton Sinclair has written: “It is difficult to get a man to understand...

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ING Life retirement planning advertisement in ET Wealth makes misleading assumptions. It wants you to retire on your terms, but with ING’s assumptions. What can be expected from agents selling the plan? May be even more mis-selling? ING Life has issued a full-page advertisement in ET Wealth...

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The main attraction of any insurance product is tax benefits at entry and exit. This is possible as long as there is minimum insurance component. Does your insurance policy comply with the rules? The main attraction of any insurance product is tax benefits at entry under Section 80 C and at...

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IRDA is reviewing products with low or reducing insurance as it intends to enforce a certain premium-to-sum-assured ratio. Approval of Bajaj Allianz Guaranteed Maturity plan seems to be direct breach of this stated intension The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) had stated...

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Rajesh Sud, CEO and managing director,  Max New York Life Insurance, ML: Any plans to offer a low-premium online term plan? RS: Online term insurance has become a commodity. According to what I hear, renewals are lower for these policies. Customers easily move from one insurer to...

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Moneylife Digital Team 08 December 2011
Traditional endowment plan with annual income benefits Future Generali Secure Income plan is a traditional endowment plus money-back plan which can be made into a whole life plan. The ticket size begins with Rs10,000. The plan offers flexibility to choose the premium payment term (PPT) as...

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Moneylife Digital Team 08 December 2011
Monthly admin charge of 0.5% makes it expensive The product brochure of Bharti Axa Life Future Invest highlights zero allocation charges on the first page. It also mentions that the premium paid by the customer is invested in his chosen funds as allocation charges are NIL. Is it really...

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Mediclaim portability started in October 2011. While the response has been lukewarm, there are early trends that poaching of young and healthy customers will be the strategy. Who is winning on that score? As expected, despite newspaper advertisements from the Insurance Regulatory and...

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Moneylife Digital Team 02 December 2011
The safe and smart way to reduce your home loan burden The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has hiked interest rates 12 times in the past 20 months effectively increasing the rates by 3.75 percentage points. This leaves no option for banks but to pass on the rate hike to customers. Home-loan...

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It is a strange choice considering that term life is the best insurance. The ULIP comparator can be expanded by IRDA to bring in more value. This is launched just after stringent guidelines for web aggregators which will drive them out of business The Insurance Regulatory and Development...

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