Expense Account, Mint As I breezily recommend an index fund to anybody who is risk averse and still wants “better” return than a bank deposit, I forget to take into account a slice of the reader and viewer segment which does not know the assumptions or the formulae behind this sweeping prediction of the future...
Expense Account, Mint The murmurs heard are now backed by data. Banks and large corporate distributors are churning mutual fund investors. Mintmutual fund editor Kayezad E. Adajania’s story “Banks nudge investors out of MFs; smart HNIs stay for bull run” (http://bit.ly/aTPn2A) has data to show that banks and large corporate distributors have churned their mutual fund...
Expense Account, Mint This is a story that has been waiting to build scale, to add the four zeros it takes to gather the critical mass to declare something a scam, a bubble, trouble or just messy management. On Tuesday,Mint broke the story about the notional Rs 14,000 crore valuation deficit in three plans run by...
Expense Account, Mint As I read through the pages and pages of questions from viewers sent by my producer for the weekly show that Mintdoes with NDTV, one distinct pattern emerges. Most people have the makings of a financial plan, but are simply unsure of how to proceed. Going to the next step means knowing that...
Expense Account, Mint While we were used to the mutual fund industry complaining about its regulator, soft voices against the regulator are surfacing in the life insurance industry as well—and they sound very surprised. The funds were used to a tough regulator, but the insurance industry is a bit open-mouthed by the sudden turnaround in...
Expense Account, Mint The government has made the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) the sole regulator of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulip) and amended the Acts governing other regulators to make its intentions clear. I have two views on this handing over of a hybrid product to one regulator instead of a joint-regulation mechanism with...
Expense Account, Mint You could not have missed the large ads in the last two weeks, advertising 100% returns over the last year. Are they lying? Is this another scam? It is too good to be true. None of the above. The advertised funds have indeed doubled your money over a year. And so have...
Expense Account, Mint One of the reasons that people find buying financial products tough is that there is no connect between the product and what it will do. A car gets you around the city. A washing machine, well, washes clothes. And a laptop allows me to write this piece. But what will that mutual...
Expense Account, Mint I’ve learnt to treat questions that include soliciting stock tips and my prediction for the stock market as feeble male attempts to include me in their conversations at social dos. I’d actually much rather talk about dogs, kids and trade hummus recipes. Anyhow, the one question I do take seriously is one...
Expense Account, Mint Markets are up about 30% over the past six weeks.Will this stock rally last? Should you buy now? One view says that post-election, the markets will crash. However, if the Congress manages a stable coalition, they will soar. Some experts believe that this is a dead cat bounce—a bear market rally that...