Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Prajna Capital

Prajna Capital


Max New York Life Insurance Launches New Income Plan

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:52 AM PDT

Max New York Life Insurance on Thursday launched Max New York Life Guaranteed Monthly Income Plan that provides investors with a regular payout indexed to benchmark the government securities rate. The plan aims to provide a dual benefit of regular income flow as well as protection against any exigencies through a protection component. Speaking on the launch, Rajesh Sud, chief executive and managing director, Max New York Life Insurance said, "At Max New York Life Insurance, we design products keeping in the mind the future needs of our customers. The rising cost of living and securing ones future is clearly a concern."
 

A financial planner can help fine tune your portfolio

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:47 AM PDT


   The humble individual investors are in a fix. They just can't decide if they have to hire a financial advisor. Their plight is caused by the problem of plenty.

They were considering hiring an agent, the ubiquitous species you would find in your neighbourhood, who would call in on their clients at their home, fill the forms, collect the cheque to be submitted to a mutual fund house, insurance company, etc. Then someone asked them to check out the virtual world, where you have umpteen number of dedicated sites helping you research and transact. Some others wanted them to hire an advisor, who would advise them on investments for a fee. Some advisors would even help the investor with investments for an additional fee.


There are a wide range of service providers available and you have to choose the one who can cater to your requirement.


So, whom should you hire: small independent financial advisors? Certified financial planners? Advisors from banks and brokerage firms?

IDENTIFY YOUR NEEDS

The starting point is to ask yourself if you are capable of tracking the markets all by yourself or if you need hand-holding and advice on what to buy or sell? Make no mistake, the Indian markets are globalised and affected by the vagaries of the global financial markets. A development in a far-off country like Greece or Spain, cross-border currency movements, floods, politics… almost anything could affect financial markets. In short, ask yourself if you have the time and inclination to keep track of everything that is happening around the world and its impact on the Indian markets and your portfolio.


Remember, it is not just the stock market. You should also keep track of the debt segment or gold as an ideal portfolio should be spread across diverse asset classes. Are you familiar with these asset classes and the plethora of products available to invest in? Would you be able to draw up an asset allocation plan — that is, decide on the percentage of money that should go into each asset class? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then you can do it on your own. All you need is the small-time advisor who would help you with the formality, or some website that would offer you research material and let you transact online. Otherwise, you are back into the game of choosing the ideal financial consultant for you.


COMFORT, TIME FACTOR

You want someone to collect the forms and cheques and physically deposit them with a fund house or brokerage? Then you should think of hiring an agent or advisor who would do it for you. However, as mentioned earlier, hire an agent only if you follow a little bit of investments.


While smaller agents may be prompt in collecting a cheque and depositing it, they may be poor on research capabilities. Otherwise, think of hiring an advisor. Here you have two choice: one, hire someone purely for his opinions. Two, hire someone who would give you gyan and also take care of your investments.
The choice is yours, depending on what suits you the best. If time and inclination is a problem, then opt for someone who would give you advice, help you take decisions and do periodic review of your investments.


Alternatively, if you want a mix of both physical and online world, check brokerages such as ICICIdirect, Sharekhan, Geojit BNP Paribas and so on. So, if you are travelling and want to use the internet to execute your transactions, an online account would work well. Another aspect you need to consider in terms of servicing is the quality of advice you get to fine tune your portfolio.

THE FINAL CHOICE

Now, the sad truth. It really doesn't matter what you have decided, it would be the money in your hand that would determine the kind of advisor you can hire. For example, if you are investing a small amount, say . 20,000 to . 50,000 in a year, it is unlikely that certified financial planners, big banks or private bankers would be interested in serving you. Financial planners could charge upward of . 5,000 per annum. It won't be a viable option for those with a small corpus, as the charges would itself be about 10% of the corpus. In such a scenario, it would be best for investors to do the research themselves and use an internet provider or an agent to execute his transaction. The other option is to settle for the neighbourhood agent or advisor.


On the other hand, if you have a sizeable amount to invest, say . 3-5 lakh per year, you could then look at professional advisors to advise you on your investments. If you have upwards of . 25 lakh per annum to invest, then you could even consider a relationship manager of a bank or a brokerage house to manage your investments. However, here's a word of caution. Many a time, relationship managers, to meet their targets, end up churning portfolios or selling exotic structures, which are difficult for the lay man to understand.


Choose advisors for the quality of advice they provide based on their track record or referrals. You could check their past track record and experience and even ask for references. You should check the pedigree of the organisations they come from. Choose an advisor who adds value and increases your knowledge over a period of time.


Just like you pay a doctor or a lawyer for their services, it makes sense to pay a financial advisor to get high quality advice and service. This is better than losing a portion of your wealth due to incompetent and poor advice.
 

Short-Term Debt Funds More Attractive Now

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:36 AM PDT

With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announcing a rise in key policy rates for the 11th time in the last 16 months, more investors are likely to flock towards short-term debt funds.

According to fund managers, the latest aggressive hike in interest rates will have a more negative impact on Government Securities (G-Sec) than short-term and money-market funds. Since G-Secs are of longer duration they tend to fall more.

Among debt mutual funds, with the rise in interest rates, fixed maturity plans (FMPs) are expected to see higher yields. At the same time, this will adversely impact the performance of long-term income and gilt funds which will see mark-to-market losses. With liquidity still remaining in deficit, short-term income funds may continue to witness investor interest.

Investors' improved appetite for FMPs is evident from the fact that assets of fixed monthly products zoomed to a three-year high in the quarter ended June. The assets had touched `1.2 trillion ( `1 lakh crore), or 16 per cent of the total assets of the domestic mutual fund industry.

Short-term debt funds are giving a return of 9-10 per cent to investors. This, gains importance at atime when equities are moving in a range.

With higher yields in the G-Sec, long-term debt funds will have negative impact. The price fall in bond will be anywhere between 0.5 to 0.75 per cent. Markets have generally moved up by 10-11 basis points, which means 65-70 bond while for a three month paper it is four paise per 100.

Yields have gone up in government securities by 10-11 basis negative impact. The price fall in bonds will be between 0.5 to 0.75 per cent.

Short-term funds predominantly invest in corporate bonds with 1-2 year maturity. And these are giving good returns as they buy corporate papers which are trading between 9-10 per cent. These are attractive levels for a person to lock on to in the form of investing in short-term debt funds. But for a long duration fund, it is difficult as there is no clarity on further rate hike cycle. Fund houses have already started reducing the average duration of maturity for long-term debt funds. There is absolutely no money in the long term debt funds. Investors are not putting money in more than a year product.
 

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Also, know how to buy mutual funds online:

 

1) DSP BlackRock Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/05/buying-dsp-blackrock-mutual-funds.html

 

2) Reliance Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-reliance-mutual-funds-online.html

 

3) Reliance Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/07/buying-hdfc-mutual-funds-online.html

 

4) Sundaram Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/07/buying-sundaram-mutual-funds-online.html

 

5) Birla Sunlife Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-birla-sunlife-mutual-funds.html

 

6) UTI Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-uti-mutual-funds-online.html

  

7) SBI Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-sbi-mutual-funds-online.html

 

8) Edelweiss Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-edelweiss-mutual-funds-online.html

 

9) IDFC Mutual Funds:

http://prajnacapital.blogspot.com/2011/06/buying-idfc-mutual-funds-online.html

 

 

Google+ Tips

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 05:21 AM PDT

 

You may have started using Google+, but did you know that you could edit photos in it? Integrate it with other social networks? Like with any new service, there are a lot of hidden features and lesser-known tricks in Google+, just waiting to be explored. Here are 12 killer tips just as Google+ goes out of beta


1
If you have commented on a post, but do not want notifications of the follow-up comments coming to your inbox, there is a simple way out. Go to the original post and on the right side you will see a drop down arrow. Click on the arrow and select 'mute conversation'. You can choose to shut off all notifications from Google+ settings as well.

2
If you do not want others to see the people in your Circles, go to your profile page and click on 'edit profile'. On the left side, you will see a small grey disc just above the photographs of your Circle members. Click on the disc and in the box that opens, you can choose the visibillity of your circle members.

3
You can setup Google+ to send notifications to your mobile phone as well.
Click on the gear icon on the top right corner and select Google+ settings. On the page that opens, go to 'delivery preferences' and under your email address you'll see the option to add a mobile number to receive push notifications. Enter your phone number and Google will first send you a verification code. After verification, you will start receiving free notifications on your phone by SMS.


4
By default, video chat in Google+ uses standard definition video, but if your webcam supports it, you can enable HD video support. First, sign in to chat, hover the mouse cursor over the chat section on the Google+ page, click on the small triangle that appears and then click on settings. Here, you'll see a checkbox to enable HD video chat.

5
There is a built-in basic photo editor in Google+ as well. Select any of the photos uploaded to your profile and double click on it to edit. It will open the image in a full page — click on the 'actions' box below the image and here you can rotate the photos or click on edit to apply a variety of basic effects and tune-ups.

6
The Circle feature can be used to save various shared links and notes if you want to read them later. Go to Circles, create a new Circle, name it whatever you want (like 'Read Later') and do not add anyone in it (Google calls it an Empty Circle). Now, whatever you want to read later, share it on your Google+ status with only this empty Circle that you have created. It will work as your online repository for bookmarks, videos and any other thing you want to access later.

7
To add a faux banner to your Google+ profile page, you will need to do a bit of photo cropping and resizing using an image editing program. Paste a photo into a template, 750 pixels wide and 150 pixels high and resize it to fit. Then, split this image into 5 smaller photos, each with a dimension of 150 x 150 pixels. Go to your profile page, click on 'edit profile' and upload the images in the order that you want.

8
To share your location with a person or a circle, first click the share button on the top right of the Google+ page, then click the 'add your location' button in the text box that pops up. You may have to click 'allow' if a webpage notification comes up. Once Google+ has determined your location, just add names to add them to the share list, or add a complete Circle.

9
Using Google Chrome with Google+ gives you a whole host of new things to play with, thanks to free extensions. For example, an extension called Helper for Google+ allows you to share your Google+ posts to Twitter, while an extension called Surplus integrates Google+ right into the browser. With it, you can post/share though a pop-up or get desktop notifications even if the Google+ webpage is not open.

10
Let's say you want to share a specific post with someone new to Google+ — the easiest way to do this would be to share a permalink (permanent link). To get a permalink for a specific post, simply click the time stamp in the post — and it will open in a new page. Copy this link to share with anyone over email or chat, even if they don't have a Google+ account.

11
Google+ allows you to post updates in a variety of styles. To post in bold, add an asterisk at the beginning and end of the word (i.e., * word *). To post in italics, add an underscore before the word and a plus sign after it (i.e., _ word +). To post with a strikethrough, add a dash before and after the word (i.e., - word -).

12
To add your various other social networking websites or contacts to your Google+ profile page, first go to Google+ settings by clicking on the gear icon in the top right of the page. Then click on 'connected accounts' and add the accounts here. For instance, to add your Facebook account, type
http://facebook.com/yourusernamein the box.

Awesome Google+ Features


A) Circles

Sharing posts becomes easier by sorting people into groups (or Circles). You start with three Circles — friends, family and acquaintances. You can add as many more as you want

2) Hangout

Hangout allows you to video chat with upto 10 people at the same time. It automatically brings the person speaking into focus in a large window. Note that this feature requires a fast internet connection

3) Sparks

Sparks is an integrated service that allows you to add topics to Google+ based on your interests. It can help 'spark' new and meaningful conversations with your Circles

 

Before You Go For A Second Loan... Ensure you are not over-leveraged

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 04:39 AM PDT

Buying through loans, especially when it comes to houses and cars, is a common practice nowadays.

And, sometimes, all these purchases happen within months or a few years of each other.

Bankers are often not comfortable when customers already have a sizeable amount of debt on their balance sheets and are looking for more. But then, one may really need the loan for that car, or medical emergency, or some personal expenditure.

In this situation, before approaching banks, one may want to take stock of their current debt servicing ratio.

It may sound technical but in simple terms, it means the cash available with you to service debt. And the higher your debt servicing ratio, the better are the chances of securing another loan.

For the salaried with an EMI above 50 per cent of their salary, taking another loan is not a good idea, as the debt servicing ability could be hampered in the future

A private sector banker said loan servicing, as a percentage of your monthly take-home pay, should not be 40 per cent. The rest is earmarked for monthly expenses.

So, if your take-home salary is `1 lakh per month, monthly expenses 35,000 and EMI `25,000, then you have a surplus of `40,000 every month. This financial scenario is quite comfortable for any bank to lend you more. Things can go haywire if your EMI is, say, `60,000 for the same salary and you are seeking another loan.

Some large public sector banks provide car loans at 1.5 per cent lower than the current existing rate for existing home loan customers. The rationale is since a housing loan is a significantly higher sum than the car loan, and both are collaterised with the same bank, the risk can be taken.

A senior manager with Union Bank says banks also find comfort in existing customers because of the easy availability of data regarding their loan servicing ability.

Delinquency rates in personal and car loans are higher and hence, an existing customer, whose loan repayment has been seen and whose KYC is done, will find it easier to get such a loan.

If you approach a bank with no financial relationship in the past, things may not be so simple. They may not be so comfortable providing a personal loan because of the lack of collateral, especially if you are overleveraged. Even in the case of auto loans, the falling realisable value of the car makes many banks uncomfortable.

Yes, there are non-banking financial institutions that provide loans. But, the rates being charged are sometimes prohibitively high sometimes.

From a bank's perspective, unless it is an easily saleable security, they may be hesitant in doling out loans. A car loan is just about possible, while a loan against gold/shares is also easy to secure.

Other options for raising cash such as loans against shares come under the capital market exposure of the bank. Banks, by and large, tend to maintain a 50 per cent margin on loans against shares.

Ø       Maintain a good EMI payment history on your home loan

Ø       Keep a high debt servicing ratio

Ø       Approach your own bank or the bank which has given you a home loan

Ø       Check with your bank for offers available to home loan owners

Loans against gold and shares are easier to come by

Financial Planning: What is a Disaster Plan? How to put it inplace?

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:57 AM PDT



Over the past two years, close to 517 people were killed and 1,772 were seriously injured on the Mumbai-Goa highway. Days after coming across with these statistics, I read in a national daily about four people getting killed in a road mishap on the highway, and that the deceased included the breadwinners, while the rest of the family was seriously injured. And, all the while, I felt sympathy for those killed — people who, when they left home, would have never imagined that such a tragedy could happen to them.


Most of us live thinking and believing that we would not be affected by the vagaries of life. But when disaster strikes, we are left grappling with reality. Financial planning can help you and your family members get a better grip on finances. It helps you not only know how the finances are placed in the present situation, but also allows you to continue to fulfil the goals you had dreamt of.
Here are a few things that you should keep in mind:

KEEP A SET OF ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS WITH YOUR FINANCIAL PLANNER:

After the sudden demise of her husband, Mrs Rane (name changed) was in a state of shock and was unable to find all the related documents that would help her during the financial crisis. After searching, she realised that those papers were misplaced. To prevent yourself or your family from landing in such a situation, keep a set of all your documents with your financial planner. This should include your insurance papers, bank statements, etc, as this would help in payment of all your medical bills, in case of sickness or any other tragedy.

MAKE A WILL:

Mrs Rane also realised that all of her husband's assets had to be distributed among her children and few of his close relatives. However, when the time came, she did not know how to distribute the assets. To avoid such situations, create a will that will help in streamlining the process of distributing the assets when such a situation arises. Explain every detail to your financial planner and a lawyer and how you would want your property to be distributed among the surviving members of the family.

INCLUDE PLANS FOR THE SURVIVOR'S FUTURE GOALS:

When Mrs Rane's husband was alive, he would speak passionately about his kids and their dreams. However, he failed to create any emergency plan for them since he never gave disaster planning a second thought. If you have such desires, make sure you act on them immediately. Create a special trust fund with the help of your financial planner, where every month you would invest a certain amount of resources so that your children can complete their goals without hassles.

POWER OF ATTORNEY:

Following the death of her husband, Mrs Rane was in no state of mind to make any kind of financial decisions for her family.
As a part of a sound financial plan, it is advisable that you appoint a trustworthy person with a power of attorney, who can take quick and sound financial decisions on your behalf in emergencies.


Take care of children's rights: The tragedy for the Rane family would have been graver if Mrs Rane had not survived the accident. If both the parents of a family die unexpectedly, it is the children who find themselves in the most horrible position. Make a provision in your will to hand over guardianship of children, if they are still minors. While this is only applicable if both the parents have expired, this provision will ensure that your children are taken care of, even in your absence.


There is no sure shot way to be prepared for any sort of tragedy, as it always comes unannounced. All you can do is create a financial plan that will enable your family members to continue living life and still making sure that your goals and dreams are fulfilled.

 

FMPs Offer the Best Option among Debt Funds

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:22 AM PDT



The RBI's sharp interest rate hike has raised some questions about the impact of its move on fixed income mutual funds. There has no doubt been an impact, but it's more in the nature of confirming and cementing an existing situation rather than resulting in any new change. Certainly, whenever interest rates rise, there is an impact on the price of debt securities and, thus, there should be a fall in the NAVs (net asset values) of funds that are holding these securities.


Currently, rates have been on their way up steadily since February 2010, and no one can realistically say with any certainty when and where this trend will halt or reverse.


The finance minister himself has said that this may not be the last hike.
However, the impact of rate hikes is proportional to the residual maturity of the securities. For securities that are maturing within a few weeks or months, the impact is minimal. And, as it happens, the fixed income mutual fund market has moved decisively away from long-maturity securities a long time ago.
While the magnitude of the RBI's rate hike may have been a bit of a surprise, its general direction was exactly as expected and was part of a long established trend. For over two years now, investor money has been moving out of longer-maturity mutual funds, and these funds have themselves been shortening their maturity for whatever money remains in them.


This trend actually dates back to before the current trend of rate hikes. In general, the structure of the fixed income debt fund market has changed. Investors are less inclined to try and ride interest rate movements.


In an environment where rates primarily go up and may start receding only at some point in future, there is simply no sense in investing in funds that may invest in long-maturity securities. Fixed income investors are very safety-oriented and any prospect of loss is quite a serious matter.


So if longer-term funds are out, then where has the smart investor money gone now? The answer depends on how much liquidity they need.


If the money needs to be on call, then it has to be in an open-end fund and that means short maturity funds. However, if you are okay with the money being locked for a longer period of time — like a year — then fixed maturity plans (FMPs) are a great option. FMPs are closed-end funds, so the fund manager is not constrained by the market price of securities or anything like a rate change.
The investor's yield is determined solely by the coupon — interim NAV movements during the fund's tenure are irrelevant. For the investor, this basically makes these funds a deposit.


It is true that unlike a deposit, investors don't have a clear promise of what the returns will be, but in practice, all FMP investors have a good idea of what they are going to make. Currently, investors can expect about 9.7% of returns from one-year FMPs that have started in recent weeks. About a year ago, the return was about 8.25%.


Going forward, even higher returns can be expected. And if you take the dividend plan, then the returns are obtained in a more tax-efficient manner than an equivalent bank deposit.


All in all, this makes FMPs the one class of mutual funds that will not only be unaffected by rate hikes, but will actually benefit from them.


However, all things said and done, debt funds in India are used almost purely by corporates. Even though they offer some returns and tax advantages over bank deposits, individual investors don't perceive the advantage to be worth it at the scale they invest in.


For a business which is investing crores or tens of crores and has finance professionals on board, the differential is big enough to consider them.

 

Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund – Its Schemes

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:50 AM PDT

 

 

About the Mutual Fund Company:

Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund was launched in 1994 as a Joint Venture between Aditya Birla Group and Sunlife Financial Services of Canada. Aditya Birla Groups is one of the leading business conglomerates in India.

Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund Company has launched several schemes including equity schemes, balanced schemes for long term investments and debt schemes for short term investments or alternatives to bank deposits.

Some of the best performing schemes available in Birla Sunlife Mutual fund that could be invested for long term are listed below.

·                           Birla Sunlife MNC Fund – Growth

·                           Birla Sunlife MNC Fund –  Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife India GenNext Fund – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife India GenNext Fund – Growth

·                           Birla Sunlife Dividend Yield Plus – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife Dividend Yield Plus – Growth

·                           Birla Sunlife Buy India Fund – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife Buy India Fund – Growth

·                           Birla Sunlife Pure Value Fund – Growth

·                           Birla Sunlife Pure Value Fund – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife Long Term Advantage Fund – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife Small and Midcap Fund – Dividend

·                           Birla Sunlife Long Term Advantage Fund - Growth
 

Tata Index Fund

Posted: 17 Aug 2011 01:32 AM PDT

Objective

To provide medium to long term capital gains to its Unitholders.

Option Available NIFTY Plan & SENSEX Plan

Entry Load Option A-1%

Minimum Application Amount

Option A: Rs.5,000/- & in multiples of Re.1/- thereafter.
Option B: Rs.10 Lakhs & in multiples of Re.1/- thereafter.
 
 

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