I must congratulate you on the terrific story on financial rights (Your Financial Rights, 1 November). Due to mis-selling of products, many investors are taken for a ride. But most of them are either unaware of redressal systems or ignore the fraud. Hopefully, more people will take a firm stand on this.
-Sanjeev Nagre, e-mail
Investor grievances have long gone unnoticed in the country. But as financial planning gains ground and investment options increase, there is a buzz about protecting investors’ rights. Our story sought to explore redressal mechanisms for small and big problems alike. Told through real-life experiences, we hope to drive home the advantages and loopholes of existing remedial systems.
We run an insurance solutions centre for creating awareness about the need for insurance. Most people make the mistake of buying insurance as a tax saving tool only. Your story on life insurance (Life Insurance for Protection and Prosperity, 18 October) should be an eyeopener for them.
-Kantu Chandak, Ahmedabad
The ever-increasing number of insurance plans in the market has made choosing the right policy difficult. Life insurance is no longer just a tool for protection or tax planning and has evolved as an investment instrument.
I have a few questions about your model portfolios. What is their benchmark index? Also, do you factor in brokerage costs of the transactions? In the span of few months, you have bought and sold many stocks. Are you factoring in short-term capital gains tax?
-Sumant Sarkar, Bangalore
The benchmark index for the portfolios is Nifty. We do factor in brokerage costs in our transactions. For more details, please refer to the story where we introduced MONEY TODAY portfolios in the issue dated 12 July. The article is also available on our website and can also be accessed on the MT blog there.
I am a regular reader of your Portfolio Doctor column. In your issue dated 18 October, you calculated the wedding costs of Tejinder Pal Singh’s two daughters’ as about Rs 25 lakh and Rs 37 lakh. I understood this calculation but please explain how you arrived at the required monthly investments to meet this goal.
-Shrikanth Rao, e-mail
The calculation is based on some variables including time horizon of the goal, current corpus of the investor, an assumed inflation rate and rate of return. If you want a similar analysis for your goals, please mail us the information and we will get back with the answers.
It would be great if you did a story on index funds. Your special issue on mutual funds did not talk about it much. But many investors are interested in knowing more about them.
-V Jacob Jose, Vellore
Thank you for your suggestion. We hope you read our 14 December 2006 issue where we discussed exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) in detail. ETFs are similar to index funds. You can also access the story on our website. We will start a regular mutual fund section. We will be glad to hear from you after you have read the articles in the section.
