Month: April 2014

7 Special Things YOU can do for your Parents – along with Buying Health Insurance

Posted on by Nandish Desai

Today’s article is not about which health insurance you should buy for your parents or how much health cover you should buy, the intention of this article is to help you to do something special for your parents health than just buying health cover for them. This is something that no insurance company or website ever taught you or told you about.

Health Insurance is Important, but … 

Health cover for parents is important – but a lot of people miss out on something very important, which I am going to address in today’s article. After your parents reach a particular age, do they really need health cover or is it something else? Do they need your money for paying premiums or is it something else? If you buy health cover for your parents – Is the job done or something more needs to be done?

I was thinking about these questions and they really made me think hard. I and Manish invite each one of you to add this new dimension to your financial life.

7 Special Things you can do for your parents apart from buying health cover

In my view buying health cover for your parents is just 30% job done. The rest 70% is where you can do something special for your parent’s health and we want all our readers to focus on that 70%. Now lets see each of those 7 points below.

1. First Give Them Total Assurance

assurance to old parents

Your parents need assurance (some kind of confidence) from YOU and nothing else. And so go and have conversation with them that makes them feel confident. Tell them, with or without health insurance – you will take care of them. Make a promise that you will provide them with the best medical facilities no matter what, if required put 2-5 lakh aside and dedicate the corpus/fund for your parents health.

This will build your parents confidence and may be this assurance and confidence will add a few years to their life. Assurance is one of the best gifts you can give to your parents. They got to see, experience and feel your rock solid stand that you hold for their well being.

2. Having Loving Conversation

loving conversations with parents

Parents want one simple thing from you and that is LOVE. Love is the best policy you can cover your parent’s whole life with. I invite you to block some uninterrupted time for your parents every day or every week. Loving conversation will act like therapy to your parents. We all reach at a point in life where money and financial products takes a back seat and all you want to receive is love and nothing else.

I know life is hectic and we are loaded with different kinds of responsibilities and it is difficult to take out time, but see that you do something in this area and have loving conversation with your parents. It can be a small thing like calling them from your office and asking them if everything is fine or not? Caring is 1000 times more powerful than any health cover or policy.

3. Help your parents to connect with their friends

connect parents with old friends

This is one of the most special things you can do for your parents. Do something so that they stay connected with their friends or with people they love to spend time with. When they are surrounded by their friends it means they are surrounded by energy and enthusiasm. Friends are the best support structure for your parents. It helps them to keep their old days and memories alive.

Make list of people your parents would love to meet but they have not been able to see or meet them from a long time. And arrange a meeting for them. Old friends do one thing very nicely and that is they will bring a smile on your parents face.

4. Go on a walk with them

going on walk with parents

How many of you go on walk with your parents or grandparents regularly? It is important to understand your parent’s inner world. What are they thinking, what are their concerns and worries or what is it that they want to share but are afraid to share. When you go on a walk with them you get a chance to understand their world better. You get a chance to be with them fully and you are able to understand them.

Giving such quite time to your parents is worth millions. Your parent’s health will start improving with this simple step of yours. After all health is a conversation that one indulges into and you have to empower them with respect to their health.

5. Help them engage with some light physical activity

old parents exercising

My parents go for evening walk every single day. They go to a nearby club for their evening walk and they have been doing this from last many years now. Evening walk has become like a ritual to them. I think any kind of such light physical activity is extremely important. It can be going for walk, or doing light yoga or some simple kind of simple activity.

Help your parents in this area if they are currently not engaged with any kind of physical activity. Body, mind and spirit is all connected and for sound health of your parents see that some light physical activity is part of their routine.

6. Keep a Check on their diet

keep check on parents diet

It is our responsibility to take care of our parent’s diet. Sometimes our parents are not very particular about their diet or about their food intake. For 3-4 days observe your parents diet, are they drinking enough glasses of water or not? Are they having raw vegetables and fruits in their diet or not? If possible get a dietitian to design their diet plan and help them to stick to their diet plan.

7. Yearly full body check-up

full body checkup senior citizens india

This is extremely important task. If possible place this task on your calendar. After crossing 50 ask your parents to undergo full body check-up every year. One of my close friends mother is detected with last stage cancer which is now hard to cure. Body is the most complicated vehicle god has ever created and such regular check-ups are a must to keep this vehicle running.

Sharing from my life, my father gets his yearly check-ups done but my mother is scared of going through such check-ups. After writing this article I am going to enroll my mother for the same.

Some Final Words

It’s high time you think beyond parents health insurance cover and do something special for your parents. It’s not like you have not been taking care of your parents health, I am sure you must be doing your level best in this area. Your time, care and respect are three greatest gifts you can give to your parents. Your parents need YOU more than health cover and always keep that in mind.

Please note that we are not stopping you from buying health insurance for your parents (It can be of great support to you financially). The words put into this article are not new, but still a lot of people are not able to think beyond buying health cover for parents and think that once they buy it, their job is 100% done.

Do share with us in this week or month what special you are going to do for your parent’s well being or health?. Also do share your thoughts with us on this and please share this article with all your loved ones.

This article is written by Nandish Desai

New Fraud by Agents – Changing Policy tenures from “Single Premium” to “Yearly”

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today, I wish to highlight a fraud, which has been going on for many years, but one that has not received enough attention. While the fraud itself is small and easy to conduct, its impact on investor wealth is significant.

What is exactly is the Fraud ?

Many investors, who wish to deposit money in some financial product as a ONE-TIME payment, opt for a ‘Single Premium’ policy. Here they are required to just pay the premium fee once, and the policy carries on for many years after that.

The mistake some investors make, is that they convey these instructions verbally to their agent and do not fill up the form themselves. Neither they do verify the tenure filled by the agent. Now what many unscrupulous agents do, is that instead of ‘Single Premium’, they specify ‘Regular Premium (or yearly) as the payment scheme – leading to a situation where the investor has to pay the same premium amount every year for many years thereafter.

beware of agents filling up form

What are the possible problems which happens ?

  • The premium amount is quite substantial at times. People can’t afford that sum each year and subsequently have to discontinue the policy
  • Investors remain unaware about the tenure of the policy and stay under the assumption that they do not have to pay any more money. However, the policy lapses after a year due to non-payment (If the investor does not have an email id, they do not even get premium reminder emails)
  • Even if investors come to know about the changed tenure, they need to run around from pillar to post just to cancel the policy – suffering the consequences of a problem which should never have been theirs to begin with
  • This whole experience shatters their faith in agents/ companies and leads them to avoid other agents in the future, even good ones.
  • There is a massive emotional impact as investors see this as a breach of trust and at times they lose their hard earned money – funds which thy might have set aside for some dream project!

3 real life examples of how investors were cheated by agents by changing the Tenure

There are several readers on this blog, who shared their real life experience in the comments section on how they were cheated and lost their money and peace of mind. I just want to make you aware of these experiences. Read on below.

Example #1 – How Mr. Syed Jibran cheated by people at HDFC Bank

Through the HDFC bank, I told the concern person to deduct the amount of Rs 200000/= from my saving account and consider as the single premum only, as i cant pay the amount of rs 200000/= every year. But later I come to know that they have consider my premium as the regular premium. Next day I sent the mail to head office, not to process my application and refund the same amount in my saving account.

I got the call from head office, that they cannot process to cancel my application, as they required in written cancellation letter . I agreed with team, but this is not at all my fault. Yesterday, I got a mail mentioning that there are free-look charges. This mail shocked me – even your agent cheats me, but you charges me. I send you many mails not to proceed my case and refund the same amount in my account. you can check that????????????????

Example #2 – How Naresh policies were Lapsed because he was cheated

One of my relative taken policy from Religare insurance broking ltd before 5-6 years ago with kotak-3 lacks, birla-8 & 5 Lacks as one time premium, now they are saying that the policy was regular premium plans and that is lapsed. sir now my relative want his money back.what should he do now.pls help.

Example #3 – How Reliance Life Insurance agents cheated Mr Ashok

We discussed with Reliance Life Insurance , Senior Sales Manager Mr Amit Khandelwal that we need single premium policy , he has taken our signature on application form and advised us not to fill the forms saying that “ form is complicated and likely to be filled wrongly by you consequently form will be rejected , better I will fill up the forms , as discussed , we are doing day in out this. “

Later on , he filled up the forms in his own handwriting, he has given his own home address and the worst thing he did he has filled up regular premium payment of 5,00,00/- for 5 years despite that we decided for single premium.

Return of policies was not possible for us as we have received policies very late , much beyond 15 days free look period , as policies were dispatched to Sr Sales Mgr address.

Even after this Reliance letter , I was keep on getting phones from local Indore office that we are discussing your case with our HO Mumbai , but off-late nothing has happened as yet. It is a clear case of mis-selling , breach of trust, fraud and forgery by Reliance Life Insurance. Reliance Life has terminated policies and Fund value is 50%.

Why is this fraud done by Agents ?

Frankly, it’s just because they earn higher commissions through this ploy. Agents earn meager commissions on “single premium” policies, but on yearly premiums they stand to reap much higher rewards.

single vs yearly premium difference

For example – For pension plans, the single premium commission is capped at 2% (that too one time only), however if it is a regular premium, the commission would be 7.5% for first year premium and 2% in subsequent years. Which means that if a person buys a pension plan with Rs 1 lac premium, for a Single premium policy, the agent will get 2,000 rupees, whereas if he cheats the customer and puts “regular” as the premium tenure, then he will get 7,500 rupees in first year and 2,000 in next year premium (provided it is paid by the investor).

Also on various other life insurance policies like endowment and moneyback plans, the first year premium is as high as 35-40%. So why would an agent settle for just 2% premium as commission, when he can take 20-40% of the premium (which is 10-20 times original commission)

How to save yourself from this fraud?

Here are some simple common sense tips which will work

  • Never ever let the agent fill up the form; you should always fill up the form yourself.
  • If you can’t fill the form for some reason, let the agent fill it in front of you, and once he is done, review each point filled by him. Take photocopies of the filled form for your reference
  • If you still sense that the agent is being dishonest, return the policy in the free-look up period which is generally 15 days from the date when you receive the policy in your hand
  • Email the management and customer care and tell them you will be complaining to banking ombudsman and grievance cell about this and also file a police complaint on fraud.

I invite suggestions from our readers on what solutions are possible if someone becomes a victim of such a fraud?

New LIC Term Insurance relaunched with low premiums

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

This is a bit old news now – but a lot of you might not know that LIC has relaunched their Term plans (offline) few weeks back. LIC has two term plan policies now called Anmol Jeevan II (below 25 lacs sum assured) and Amulya Jeevan II (Above 25 lacs sum assured) , and now both of these are relaunched (earlier one was Jeevan Anmol I and Amulya Jeevan I) to make sure that they comply with new IRDA regulations which came some months back.

LIC new Jeevan Amulya Term Plan

The main change in the new term plan and the old term plan is – that SINGLE premium option has been removed from these term insurance policies and the premiums have dropped due to change in mortality rates, which was due from long time for LIC to adopt (that was the main reason why LIC term plan premiums were very high compared to other companies)

Lower Premiums for New LIC Term plans

For the simplicity purpose, in this post we will just talk about LIC Jeevan Amulya (Sum Assured above 25 lacs) and not LIC Anmol Jeevan.

So now the premium is lower.  Consider an example where a 30 yr old person wants to buy a 25 yr policy . In this case the old LIC Amulya Jeevan premium was Rs 292 for every Rs 1 lac sum assured, however in the new Amulya Jeevan , its only Rs 196 , which is a reduction of approximate 33% .

Now with this new rates – if a person wants to buy Rs 1 crore term plan with LIC – then it can be bought at only Rs 19,600 , compared to Rs 29,200 earlier !

New LIC Term Plan premiums

Is LIC Term plan premium lower than other companies? 

No , LIC Term plan is still one of the highest even after reduction in its premium rates, but if someone is hell bound on buying a term plan from LIC only, then its a great news for them. If you consider other private companies – then the premiums are much lower for other companies like Bharti Axa, Aviva or HDFC Click2Protect . For example – A policy of 1 crore sum assured (25 yrs tenure) , most of the other companies will charge below Rs 10,000 per year, however in case of LIC its Rs 19,600 which is almost double .

Already bought old term plan from LIC long back , Will your future premiums be lower?

I dont think so, if you already have bought LIC Amulya Jeevan Term plan some time back, you will be paying higher premium which was decided at the time of buying and you will continue paying that only. So now its your choice if you want to re-purchase a new term plan or not, But better check the premiums difference in case you plan to repurchase it now , because if you re-purchase it now, your current age will be considered and it might happen that the premium difference is not much for you.

So now – if you still have not bought a term plan , and if you are only interest in LIC term plan, then its a good time to buy the term plan from LIC – go ahead !

Why you should go beyond MONEY , and connect with TRUE WEALTH – Here are 10 ways

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

If I have to write one last article before I die it would be the one that you are reading. Don’t worry I am here to stay and we as a team will continue to write more and more articles! This article is special to us and I am glad I got this opportunity to share my thoughts on true wealth with you. Before you read any further I have few requests, don’t react to the content, read the content slowly, sink into the content and see how you can figure out your own way or process to connect with your true wealth.

By true wealth – I mean something that really matters to you and something that is close to your heart.

A lot of people out in the world are striving for high returns, perfect financial products and earning more MONEY but somewhere they are losing touch with their true wealth and so today we want our readers to get in touch with their true wealth.

1. Great and loving relationships

If you are stuck in any relationship, no matter how much you try you won’t be able to live a fulfilled life. I interact with a lot of people who find themselves stuck in some or other relationship (they call it as disturbance in life). When relationships lack workability you lose half of the battle in the world. Because your bad relationships start to consume your mental energy and it takes you away from the kind of life you want to live. We invite you today to take some steps in your life to resolve relationship issues where you are stuck. There is nothing that you cannot resolve inside of a conversation and so start having dialogue with the other person where you can make that particular relationship better. Either get out of such relationship or continue but don’t remain stuck.

2. Relationship with Parents

Your parents are your source relationship. You may have a lot of money, huge bank balance and everything with you but if you are incomplete with your parents you will never ever be fulfilled. If you want your life to work, see that you maintain good relationship with your parents. I was once interacting with one of our clients whose father is bedridden from last few years and his father now occurs to him as burden ( he is frustrated with his situation). He is willing to take care of his father but as a duty and not lovingly. I could clearly see in his life that he earns fantastic, has everything in life but this was an area where he was stuck and so was not able to experience life at its fullest. If possible write a letter to your parents (even if they are not alive) and make sure your relationship with your parent’s works. You just can’t afford to have non-workability in this relationship.

3. Building Great Home Environment

Your home environment really matters. I and my wife always feel that as parents our only job is to provide good environment to kids and nothing else. Environment which is positive, alive and creative. Sharing from my childhood, I had very normal childhood but I witnessed a lot of family quarrels and disputes which had negative impact on me as a child. Your home environment is the greatest gift you can give to your family and kids and so pause for a while and see what best you can do to enhance your home environment. This is the greatest wealth you can ever gift to your kids and family members.

4. Do what you love

true-wealth-4

I and Manish love what we do and we see that as our success. I left my family business and he left his high paying job so that we could follow our bliss. According to us, it is a complete waste of life if you have to wake-up every day and have to do work which you don’t like doing. I am not asking you to quit your job or immediately start your own business. But be clear that your work (your daily creation) is your true wealth and so see that you love and enjoy your work. See that you nurture your work and your work nurtures you. At the end when you reach 60 or 65 you will not see work as an opportunity to earn money, but it will be about something else. (And I am sure of that). You can read how Manish had quit his job for his passion

5. Take good care of your body parts

A lot of people get so busy with their routine life, somewhere they stop taking care of their own body. If I have to put the same in a harsh way I would say “People abuse their own body”. Jim Rohn said, “Your body is the only house in which you are going to live”. A few days back one of my close relative had some hearing problem and when they approached doctor they were told, the patient will not be able to hear by left ear. They were adviced to buy hearing machine at the earliest. This person now takes great care of his second ear. Your each and every body part is important and you have to care for yourself. Here is a great thread on Quora about some misconceptions about health and wellness.

Do you go for regular dental check-up? Do you go for regular eye check-up? Or regular health check-up? Or exercise regularly? – We are not saying anything new but we know that a lot of you need to bring attention to your body. This article will teach you 10 mind-blowing things “Health” can teach you about “Wealth”

6. Loving circle of clients and colleagues

Majority of you spend a lot of time in your office with your colleagues or having interaction with your clients. Most people have loving family and loving friends in their life but it is important to have loving circle of clients and colleagues. I was once having conversation with one of our clients who had some major issue with his boss and so he was not able to focus on other areas of his life. Stop blaming people, take all the politics and professional insecurities out of your work life, stop judging people you work with because when you judge people you are not able to form loving circle of colleagues and clients. People you surround with are part of your true wealth because that is from where all the support, information and leverage is going to enter your life.

7. Stay connected with your hobby

When we lead our workshop we ask people to raise their hands if they have any hobby in life. A few hands raise as majority of them do not have any hobby in life. Hobby is something that you love doing without any compulsion or pressure. This is something you do for your own self and not for someone else. It helps you to rejuvenate, it gives you a chance to connect with your own self-expression and so I always urge our clients to stay connected with their hobby. Your hobby is your true wealth; your hobby is your companion who will be with you all your life.

8. Give quality time to your kids

My son is now 1 year and 2 months old (young) and I love playing with him and his little friends who visit our home. As parents a lot of people set children education goal and marriage goal but more importantly you have to spend quality time with your kids. In the first 5-8 years of kids upbringing it is important that you spend more and more quality time with your kids. It is my dream to write a book on how to teach kids about money ( I see it as my duty to do something for kids). After you return home instead of watching soap operas, see that you spend quality time with your kids. Here it is not about quantity it is always about quality.

9. Build a small library at home

A lot of people have home theater at their home but they do not have library. I am not against owning a home theater because I have one at my home. I always tell my wife that the only wealth I am going to pass on to my next generation is my collection of books and nothing else. I would not like to pass on money to next generation but I will pass on books through which they can build their own capacity to produce and create wealth. Make sure you build your small library at home with some quality and inspiring books (And don’t forget to add our 3 books to your library)

10. Spend time with Nature

Being with Mother Nature is your greatest wealth. Where I live we have peacock and peahens visiting our house every day. Every day evening I spend some time sitting in my garden doing nothing and I just BE with Mother Nature. I invite you to spend 10 to 15 minutes every day with Mother Nature, it has tremendous power in it and it will leave you with a lot of energy and peace of mind. Wherever you live see that you stay connected with nature by some way or the other.

Some Final words

In life always stay grounded and connected with your true wealth. You are free to make list of what you consider as your true wealth and take steps to give yourself fully to what matters to you. We want our readers to grow, we want each one of you to always stay connected with your true wealth. We also want you to help others in connecting with their true wealth.

This is how we can spread jago effect; this is how we can create a world that works for everyone. Do share your key insights with us in the comment section. If you have any better idea do share the same with us.

Note – This article is written by Nandish Desai