Category: Knowledge and Concepts

How is interest on saving bank account is calculated ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A lot of people do not know interest is calculated on their savings bank account.In this article I will explain all the aspects of interest on a savings bank account. Earlier all the banks had the same interest on their saving bank accounts, which was 4% , so a person had no choice in terms of interest rate, you would have got the same return with any bank. But, RBI has recently de-regulated interest on saving bank account and now banks can decide the interest they want to pay on saving bank. This has had a positive impact for customers, because now due to competition, banks like Kotak Bank and Yes Bank have started offering higher interest rates like 6% or 7% and using that parameter to attract lot of customers.

How is interest on saving bank is Calculated ?

Coming to the main question, the procedure to calculate saving bank interest, we will first see how it was done earlier and then we will see how its done now.

Old Method

Earlier, Banks used to pay 3.5% interest on the minimum balance between 10th and last day of the month. This was not a very customer friendly method because if you kept Rs 5,00,000 in your saving account for the whole month and on 26th, & let’s say you take out 4,90,000. You would have got interest only on Rs 10,000 @3.5% , which is just Rs 28.

New Method

Now a new method is used to calculate the interest on saving bank account which is very fair.  From April 1, 2010 , as per the RBI circular on new guidelines on saving bank interest calculation; this is the rule for interest calculation.

“The interest has to be calculated on daily basis for the closing day balance” – It’s that simple. So let’s say the interest rate is 4% , then you will get interest @4% on daily basis for your closing balance and it will get accumulated , but it will be paid back to your account only after 3 or 6 months. While RBI wants all the banks to pay the interest every quarter, each bank has its own criteria , like ICICI Bank pays it twice a year right now in Sept and March.

So now, if you see the same example we discussed above, with the new method of interest calculation, the interest will be 4% on 5 lacs (Rs 1,369) for 25 days (from start of month to 25th) and on 10,000 for next 5 days (Rs 5) (26th – 30th) . So the interest would be total Rs 1,374 . In the old method it was just Rs 28 . Can you see the gigantic difference?

Saving Bank Interest Calculation

High Interest on Saving bank from some banks

You must have seen some banks are now offering 6-7% of interest rate and they have dual interest rates, like 5.5% below 1 lac and 6% above 6% (in case of Kotak Bank) , which means that you will be getting 5.5% on the amount below 1 lac and only on the difference amount above 1 lac, you will get 6% interest . So if you have a balance of Rs 1,50,000 in your bank (lets say kotak bank) , you will get 5.5% on 1,00,000 and 6% on 50,000 .

You should be more interested in interest below 1 lac

If you see the average amount kept in saving bank account , it should not cross 1 lac for most of the people . While there are people who park their money in saving bank account for some time, but it does not happening with most people. So if some bank is giving higher interest for amounts above 1 lac, that’s a secondary benefit for you, not the basis of selection of bank. Because if you are anyways ready to keep a balance of more than 1 lac, why not just create a short term deposit online,which can be broken anyways or just activate your sweep in account option, so that an amount above a target amount automatically gets converted to FD and earn more money.

Do you now understand how interest on saving bank account is calculated? Will it help you manage your bank money in a better way?

Worst 5 yr period in Stock markets – Are you happy with your Investments ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Most of the people are worried about their Mutual funds, ULIPs and direct stocks returns. In the last 5 yrs, Stock Markets have been so bad that literally no mutual fund has given a good return in last 3-5 yrs , except few. I recently saw a reader asking this question

I have been going through SIP returns for last 5 years of some best recommended mutual funds and found that the returns were less than the Bank FD rates or at par… What is the use of investing in risky mutual funds if they cannot deliver returns better than Bank FDs in long run… I suppose they are high risk low return investments… please enlighten..

Your investment return is function of underlying Asset Class

A very simple, but not an easy thing is to digest that it’s not the investment product, which is doing bad, but the underlying asset class. Take the same example of mutual funds, ULIP or Index Funds. Its not the “fund”, but the stocks which they are invested in, that are doing badly. Stock markets in India have seen one of their worst 5 year periods (2007 – 2012). In my book “Jagoinvestor”, there’s one chapter on equity and debt, where I take last 30 yrs of history and show how in the long term, equity has given good returns and as the tenure increases, the returns get stabler and better .

So because stock markets have given bad results in the near term, its natural that the investment product which uses those stocks will also give similarly bad returns. So your fund might have just done its job of picking stocks as per their mandate, but the underlying stocks have done so badly that the mutual funds really can’t do anything here. What really you need to look at, is if the mutual funds have beaten its benchmark or not . If not, that’s when the issue is with the fund.

When did you exactly buy matters?

Yes, the last 5 years returns have been really bad!. No investor would be happy with these returns. However, did you notice that your opinion will be strongly biased, based on the tenure you have been holding the stocks or mutual funds? Some one who had bought near the peak of 2007, will surely say – “Stock market is the worst investments, never believe someone who says they are good.”  A person who had bought stocks in 2002 and had sold in 2007 , would say – “Stock markets are great” and someone who bought in 2002 and is still holding would also say – “Overall they are good. Ups and downs are always there.”

Let me show you some numbers. I took past 10 years of monthly NIFTY data starting from Sept 2002 to Sept 2012. Then I divided it into two halves, so there is  the first 5 years (Sept 2002 – Sept 2007) and the next 5 years (Sept 2007 – Sept 2012) . Here are the results of the returns based on the Index values.

Nifty Returns from 2002 - 2012

First 5 yrs

You will see that the first 5 yrs  were a really golden period, which gave close to 35-40% for lump sum as well as SIP investments. Someone who had been invested in this period would know how amazing the returns were.

Next 5 yrs

If you have been lying in this group, you must be complaining and surely your investments have not done well. You are disappointed and you have lost your wealth. But sadly it’s only because you are in this group.

Total 10 yrs

If you see the returns in this period ,you will see that the lump sum returns are 19% and even SIP return have been around 13% , which is a respectable rate of return. Most of the returns were eaten up due to the last 5 years, but even with those 5 years counted, the returns are good enough. At least better than PPF or FD returns and that too tax free .

Nifty Returns from 2002 - 2012

Stock Markets vs your Investments Return

“Equity gives good returns in long term” is a statement which is nothing but a probability linked statement , It means “most likely, equity will give good returns in long term”  It’s purely a function of time and your consistency in investing. While 5 years can be seen as a long term tenure, there can still be 5 years tenures where the returns are not that good and you might get bad or negative returns. Also note that it’s not your investment product, but the underlying asset is behaving wrong. So rather than complain about the fund, better complain about the stock markets .

What was your biggest take away from this article ?

NEFT and RTGS – A detailed Guide

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Lets try to understand what is NEFT and RTGS and what is the difference between them. NEFT and RTGS are two main mechanisms to transfer money from one bank to another bank in India. Transferring money between two accounts in same bank is pretty straight forword and its a internal matter of the bank, it does not have to deal with other banks and their protocols, however when one bank wants to send the money to another bank in India, there is a defined mechanism it has to be done and hence NEFT and RTGS comes into picture. Both these systems are maintained by Reserve Bank of India. Lets understand both of these

NEFT – National Electronic Fund Transfer

NEFT full form is National Electronic Fund Transfer, and its a system of transfer between two banks on net settlement basis. Which means that each individual transfer from one account to another account is not settled or processed at that same moment, its done in batches . A lot of transactions are settled in one go in each batches. Presently, NEFT services are available from 8:00 am to 6:30 pm on weekdays (Mon – Fri) and from 8:00 am – 12:30 pm on Saturday.

Any NEFT Transfer done between 8 am – 5 pm generally gets settled on the same day, but if you deposit the money after 5 pm, then that will be settled the next working day. In case of Saturday, any money deposited between 8 am – 12 noon can be expected to reach the beneficiary account the same day.

NEFT Transfer Example

For example lets say Ajay has ICICI Bank account and Robert has a bank account in HDFC bank , Now Ajay deposits Rs 10,000 in Vijay account through NEFT transfer at 10:30 am . The money will be then taken out from Ajay’s ICICI Account and will be sent to Vijay’s HDFC bank the same day, then HDFC bank will credit Vijay’s bank account. In case money can not be transferred to the target account (beneficiary account) , the money will be credited back to the source branch within 2 hours of the batch in which it was processed.

RTGS – Real Time Gross Settlement

RTGS full form is Real Time Gross Settlement and its a system of money transfer between two banks in real time basis, which means the moment one bank account transfer the money to another bank account, its settled at that time itself on real time basis between the banks, but the beneficiary bank has to make the final settlement to the bank account within two hours of getting the money. RTGS is the fastest possible money transfer between two banks in India through a secure channel.

Let me give an example, lets say Ajay has a SBI Bank account and Vijay has an Axis Bank account, Ajay transfers Rs 5 lacs to Vijay’s account  through RTGS transfer, SBI bank instantly transfers Rs 5 lac to Axis Bank, now Axis bank has 2 more hours to deposit it in Vijay’s account . Hence in worst case even with RTGS transfer there can be delay of 2 hours.

NEFT and RTGS Timings

NEFT and RTGS Charges

NEFT and RTGS transfer charges depends on the Bank. RBI has guidelines for the maximum fees which can be charged, but it finally depends on the bank in question. Note that NEFT and RTGS charges, varies depending on the amount transferred and the timings when its done. While NEFT charges depends purely on the amount transfered, RTGS charges depends on the amount transferred as well as the timings of the day when its done . A RTGS transfer early will cost a little less charges. Note that, Service tax is also applicable to the charges. Below are the charges shows for NEFT and RTGS for retail banking (not for institutional banking)
NEFT and RTGS Charges

Information required to make an RTGS & NEFT payment?

For making a payment through NEFT/RTGS, following information has to be furnished.

  • Amount to be remitted
  • Remitting customer’s account number which is to be debited.
  • Name of the beneficiary bank.
  • Name of the beneficiary.
  • Account number of the beneficiary.
  • IFSC code of the destination bank branch
Note : MICR code is generally not required for NEFT or RTGS transfer

Points to Note

  • Each Bank has their own NEFT and RTGS application form, which you can download from their website
  • RBI declared holidays each year when you cant do NEFT and RTGS fund transfer transactions, see 2012 list
  • To find out different bank branches which are enabled for NEFT and RTGS transactions, you can see this RBI list

Difference Between NEFT and RTGS

Finally let me list down all the differences between NEFT and RTGS in a table, so its easy for you to understand the conclude finally.

 

Criteria NEFT RTGS (Retail)
Settlement Done in batches (Slower) Real time (Faster)
Full Form National Electronic Fund Transfer Real Time Gross Settlement
Timings on Mon – Fri 8:00 am – 6:30 pm 9:00 am – 4:30 pm
Timings on Saturday 8:00 am – 12:30 pm 9:00 am – 1:30 pm
Minimum amount of money transfer limit No Minimum 2 lacs
Maximum amount of money transfer limit No Limit No Limit
When does the Credit Happen in beneficiary account Happens in the hourly batch Between Banks Real time between Banks
Maximum Charges as per RBI Upto 10,000 – Rs 2.5
from 10,001 – 1 lac – Rs 5
from 1 – 2 lacs – Rs 15
Above 2 lacs – Rs 25		 Rs 25-30 (Upto 2 – 5 lacs)
Rs 50-55 (Above 5 lacs)
(Lower charges for first half of day)
Suitable for Small Money Transfer Large Money Transfer

Are you now clear about the difference between NEFT and RTGS and their transfer charges?

6 type of Portfolio Diversification – Meaning & Strategies

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A lot of people with high net worth still do not understand Portfolio Diversification. They made good money, their investments have zoomed over the years and they feel that they have understood the mantra for growing wealth. However, an important parameter to look at is “Diversification”. How much diversified you are in your overall financial life? Let us understand what strategies we can adopt for diversification of portfolio, but let’s look at 2 examples to understand the problem first.

Example 1

Let’s look at Ajay’s example – whose net-worth has is 4 crores overall, but 3.5 crores are in just one flat in Mumbai. What can go wrong? There can be several events which can affect Ajay, An earthquake in Mumbai can come someday, prices may suddenly take a hit (if not today, maybe in future, Ajay might come to know someday that the quality of material used is not good, Liquidity issues etc etc

Example 2 

Robert has successfully grown his net-worth to Rs 15 lacs in just 3 yrs, but the issue is that most of these 15 lacs in concentrated into a single mutual fund called HDFC Top 200. What can go wrong ? – The equity markets can see one of the biggest fall just 3 years before Robert needs the money, The stocks picked by the funds can do exceptionally bad, the fund manager might take wrong decisions in a row, The expense ratio increases and you don’t know its hurting you badly from many years etc etc.

While these are hypothetical examples, you must have got a good idea of what I want to say here. A portfolio extremely skewed on one side can be extremely dangerous, maybe the chances of risk are low, but still, it can occur.

Diversification in Personal Finance

6 types of Portfolio Diversification

Asset allocation is a word that describes how well are your assets allocated across various asset classes and you do it with diversification! A lot of people feel that just because they have invested in 10 mutual funds, they have diversified their investments, but portfolio diversification is achieved at different levels. In my book Jagoinvestor, In the last chapter I talk about the simplicity of Financial life and show how 3 mutual funds are not too much different than 5 mutual funds in equity diversified category, Their underlying investments (large-cap stocks, mid-cap, the concentration of the largest stock) are pretty much exact same. Now Let’s see some of the types of Portfolio Diversification

1. Across Asset Class

You might want to diversify your investments in different asset classes like equity (mutual funds, stocks), Real estate, Debt products, commodities like gold, silver and finally Cash. It’s important to do this kind of diversification if you are not an expert in one asset class and can not handle it fully.

2. Within Asset Class

When you invest your money in one asset class but in different kinds of instruments or companies, you are diversifying it across various instruments of the same types. A very simple example is opening Fixed Deposits in various banks. If you had to open a 10 lacs FD, the chances are you will choose 4 banks and put 2.5 lacs in each rather than doing it for 10 lacs in just one bank. In the same way someone investing in 5 different equity mutual funds. While the underlying asset class is exactly the same (equities), but still some kind of diversification is there (different fund managers handling it).

3. Geography Wise

Then you can diversify location wise or geography-wise. You can invest in real estate in India, US, UK .. You can also invest in real estate across different cities within India. You can buy stocks in the Indian stock market, US stock markets, and other countries too. The idea is to take advantage of currency fluctuations too, but this is only for experts who understand that.

4. Across Capitalization

When you invest in mutual funds, you can choose to invest in small-cap funds, large-cap funds, extra large-cap funds, small companies, big companies, etc, etc. Note that the risk and return potential will be different and anyways you will invest in different companies.

5. Across Time

Your investments can be across time also, like long term investments, short term investments, medium-term investments, You can have a 5 yrs deposit, 2 yrs deposit and 6 months deposit as well. Imagine if you have done 5 yrs deposits only – which can affect your liquidity

6. Across Style

There can be diversification across styles – You can invest in products giving you fixed income, or which are just for growth purpose. You can invest in something that has value investing principles or more speculative ideas.

Can you think about more kind of diversification or any other benefits for portfolio diversification?

What about Over diversification?

Should you diversify in all ways? Definitely not. The above ideas are just to show you how many kind of diversifications can be there, you should not overdo it and try to incorporate all kind of diversifications in your financial portfolio. Just see how much makes sense in your case and properly access how much you need it.

If you look at your current portfolio, Many many marks out of 10 will you give on the parameter of “Portfolio Diversification” or “Asset Allocation”?

6 Best ways of gold investment in 2018

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Gold recently crossed its Rs.31,000 per 10 gm mark. This is a historic moment and I am sure a lot of people want to get into gold investment for their own set of reasons. But how to invest in gold?

There are so many ways of gold investment these days; most of the people are stuck with so many choices. More than the price, the bigger deterrent the confusion of “best option of gold investment”.

In this article, we will see how to invest in gold in different ways and what are the pros and cons of all the options. The main focus of this article is to make the options more clear to you and help you make decisions.

How to invest in gold

6 ways to invest in gold

Earlier investing in gold was related to buying ornament, but now, the advanced technologies and developments in the field of finance and investment have extended these limits, because of which we have a lot of options for gold investment.

Let’s see some of the ways of gold investment.

1. Physical gold

The oldest and most widely used way of gold investment is in the form of physical gold. I would say this is a form with which most the people are comfortable with. For centuries, physical gold is the only way of gold investment.

Now coming to the point, there are two ways to invest in physical gold.

a) Jewelry –

This is the most famous way of investing in physical gold. This is mostly done for consumption rather than “investment”. Obviously jewelry is also an investment product in itself, but most people buy it for consumption purposes.

The best part of Jewelry is that it’s very easy to invest in it, all you need to do is cash or cheque and that’s all, you can buy it. Also, the whole family is more comfortable with this option. However, the sad part is that you do not just pay the market price of gold, but also making charges for jewelry.

As it’s in physical form, there are chances of theft also. One more problem with jewelry is that there are chances of fraud at times; you can be sold an inferior quality of gold in the name of “high quality” gold. So it’s very important from where you buy it.

When should you buy it?

It’s advisable that if there is some marriage going to be there in your house in the near future, you can invest in physical gold. Also, note that you are very clear that it will not be required for an emergency in the short term.

It might also be a possibility that you are more attached to physical things and do not believe in online options, that’s another reason you can go for it.

b) Gold Bar/Coin

The Gold Bar and Coins are another good way to invest in the physical form of gold. Gold bar/coins are sold by all the banks and jewelers. It’s a good way to invest in gold if you want to do it for pure investment purpose or for some distant future marriage like your sister or daughter marriage.

The good point about bars/coins is that depending on the requirement you can either buy more (bars) or less (coins) and easily available at Banks and jewelry shops, but banks only sell it, do not buy it back. Also generally there is no consumption done on a regular basis so a person can keep it in a locker or some safe place for a long time.

The bad part of gold bar/coins is that it’s always available at a premium price of 5-10% and at the time of selling them, you again will get a discounted price of 5-10 %, so overall your returns will go down.

When should you buy it?

You can buy a gold bar/coin if you are too attached to physical gold and cannot go for an online option. You can buy it for investment purposes also, but note that returns would be compromised because of the discounted price you get at the time of selling and at the time of buying.

In case you have some marriage at home in the coming future (not very near), then also you can buy it.

2. Gold ETF

Gold ETF’s are just like stocks; you can invest in these if you have a Demat account. An ETF an online version of physical gold. The best of gold ETF is that it’s convenient to invest in Gold ETF if you already have a Demat account and can start with a small amount (1 gm value) and as and when you want you can invest from time to time.

However, the sad part is that you have to pay the brokerage and you do not get a feel of gold in your hands which you get with physical gold. The gold ETF can also be illiquid at times if you have not chosen the right one.

Also, there are high chances that you will sell your gold ETF in the time of small emergencies which you will not do with physical gold. Gold Bees from Benchmark and Kotak Gold ETF are one of the biggest gold ETFs in India right now and they are highly liquid.

We recommend Gold ETF’s to our Financial Planning clients as their expectation is liquidity + some exposure to gold for investment point.

When should you buy it?

You should buy gold ETF if you already have a Demat account and would like to invest from a pure investment perspective, you can consider them as liquid as you can sell them on any day in the stock market.

Click here to read the difference between the gold ETF and gold savings fund.

3. Gold Fund of Funds

Gold Mutual funds are those mutual funds that invest in another parent mutual fund which finally invests in stocks of gold mining companies and companies which are related to gold-related activities. They also buy physical gold, but in very small quantities.

This is not a suitable investment for those who want to track gold prices, because these funds do not invest most of their money in gold, but gold-related companies. So it’s mainly an equity fund which invests in companies.

For example AIG World Gold Fund, which does nothing but invests in its parent mutual fund AIG PB Equity Fund Gold, which finally invests in different companies.

The good part of these funds is that if you are optimistic about the future of those companies involved in gold, these are good funds, but the sad part is that you will pay expense ratio two times because it is a fund of funds. A lot of people invest in these funds by mistake thinking that they invest in real gold.

When should you buy it?

By now you will be very clear that these are actually like a sectoral fund that invests in only those companies which have their work in gold-related things like mining gold etc. So it’s extremely risky or rewarding.

So if your criteria are to invest in gold companies and not gold, these are the funds to invest in

4. Gold Saving Funds

These are the mutual funds that invest in real gold. They take in money from people and buy gold and you can buy the units of these mutual funds. The best part of these funds is that you can systematically invest in gold per month through the SIP route.

The best part of this is that you don’t need to have a Demat account to invest in gold saving funds. You also can invest regularly in gold through SIP through these funds. But the sad part is that you pay administrative charges and expense ratio just like any other mutual funds.

When should you buy it?

This is really a great way to invest in Gold if you do not have a Demat account and would like to regularly invest on a monthly basis. This is a highly liquid option also because you can anytime sell the gold fund units like any other mutual funds unit.

5. E-Gold

E-Gold was launched some time back in India from the exchange called NSEL, which also has other commodities like Silver and Platinum in e-format. It’s very much like Gold ETF, where you can invest in Gold in an online format.

For investing in E-Gold you still need a Demat account, but with one of the companies authorized by NSEL (list here). The best part of this option is that you can also take physical delivery of gold with some terms and conditions.

But the sad part is that not all big broking houses Demat account can be used to buy this, you need to open another Demat account for this and this option is not too popular with retail investors.

When should you buy it?

You can buy this if you need physical delivery of gold at some future point of view, but you also want to benefit from the online advantages like the market price and no storage cost at your side.

Read more about this in detail here

6. Gold Futures

One more option to invest in Gold is through Gold Futures, but I would like to call it more of trading activity and not “investment” because of its short term in nature. You can use Gold Future to protect the pricing.

If the price of gold today is Rs.30,000 and a 3-month gold future price is 30,500, then you can lock the price at this moment to 30,500, so that when you want to buy the gold after 3 months, you get it at 30,500 only. This would require a little bit of knowledge on how future’s work.

When should you buy it?

This option is a bit more technical and one should only use it if you have a decent amount of knowledge. Do this if you want to lock the price of gold which you want to buy in the future if you fear that prices can go very high.

Which option are you going to choose and why? Are you now clear on how to invest in gold as per your condition? Leave your answer in the comment section.

Why Should you invest in gold?

Gold investment is one of the traditional ways of investment, that we are observing since childhood. It is one of the most trusted investment tools. Let,s see some of the benefits of gold investment, because of which a lot of investors prefer to invest their money in gold.

4 reasons to invest in GOLD

There are many reasons why we shall look beyond conventional Fixed Deposits, PPF and high growth Shares and Mutual Funds. Gold is always seen as a thing to own and only for consuming as ornaments, for jewellery but seldom as an investment purpose, in fact silver also for that matter.

But now there are many reasons to invest in GOLD, just like people invest in Shares, Mutual funds, PPF, NSC, and Fixed Deposits.

Reason 1: Stock Markets are becoming risky and uncertain

Stock Markets are in Bad shape for at least short or medium-term at least. No one knows whats going to happen in 6 months or 1 year or 2 years. Long term may be good but still, a medium-term perspective is not very clear.

Not only the Stock Market but the whole of financial Markets are uncertain if you consider problems like Inflation, dip in projected GDP growth of economy, etc.

Reason 2: It acts like a hedge towards Inflation and Foreign currency

As the Indian currency is gaining against Dollar and other currencies, Rupees is set to become more strong in the coming years. Gold has an inverse relation with Dollar.

https://news.goldseek.com/SpeculativeInvestor/1171382460.php

In the future as Dollar weakens, GOLD will become more strong.

Reason 3: Its a relatively less known investment option and has high potential in future

Looking at history, and every time we see that an investment option starts becoming popular and by the time most people know about it, it already gives most of its returns and becomes a talk of past.

GOLD has started gaining attention as an investment option and becoming popular and still in its middle stage, if not early.

So it’s the time to ride the boat.

Reason 4: Future High Demand and less supply

In future gold is going to in high demand and it’s already in less supply, so according to the demand-supply logic, the prices are bound to go up in the near future. Indians account for 23% of the world’s total annual consumption and overall global demand has increased 15% year on year

Gold demands were on an all-time high in 2007 and expected to increase in the coming years due to mismatch in demand and supply.

Reason 5: More Diversification 

Before some time back, diversification of portfolio was limited to Equity, Debt and Real Estate and some cash, so that your risk is spread across different class of assets. GOLD has evolved as another asset class and not it help in diversifying your portfolio.

I hope this information will help you to choose the better option of gold investment. If you still have any doubts, you can leave your query in the comment section.

PPF Maturity rules for withdrawing your money

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you know what are the rules on PPF maturity if you want to withdraw your money ? Do you know that you can extend your PPF account a block of 5 yrs after it’s initial maturity of 15 yrs? A lot of people think that once the PPF maturity is over, they get a licence to withdraw the money at any point of time in what ever way they want, in the case of extension of PPF. Today let me highlight some important points that you should be clear about PPF withdrawal rule in case of extension and show you how to calculate your PPF maturity amount. To start with lets answer what Kailash Chandra asked me sometime back on his PPF

I had opened PPF account on 05/05/1995 and extended for 5 years. Now the balance is Rs.651000/- as on 30/04/2012 and want to withdrawal partly. What amount can I draw please intimate. (link)

Whats the answer?

Its 60% Surprised!… lets move on

Before we move forward, let me clear that Public Provident Fund or PPF is a life time account. One can extend it for next 5 yrs for infinite times, this means you can keep on extending it for another 5 yrs after the maturity is over. That would in a way makes it look like a 5 yrs closed fixed deposit earning you applicable interest rate with tax benefits and without any taxation involved, even having a partial withdrawal benefit 🙂  That’s one reason why you want to open your PPF account right now even if you don’t need it at the moment, so that the maturity is 15 yrs away from now. See it as a milestone!

PPF Maturity Rules

1. PPF extended without any further contribution

The first situation is when you want to continue your PPF account, but do not want to put any further money in it . In this case all you want to do is just leave your PPF account as it is and let it earn the interest on the account accumulated. Note that if you dont take any action for 1 yr after your PPF matures, this option is default and automatically activates. Note that once its considered as “extended without any further contribution”, then later you cant put any further subscription in it. Now you can only withdraw from the PPF account, but cannot invest any fresh money in it. Note that in this case, you can withdraw any amount from your Public Provident Fund account, there is no limit. You can withdraw 10%, 50% or 90% as there is no limit. The balance amount will keep on earning the interest further. However you can withdraw only once a year, not more than once. (Learn how PPF account interest is calculated)

Interesting Fact : Now as you know this,  can you see an interesting point here, this way PPF can be acting as a great Pension tool, where you can withdraw the interest part yearly once and then utilize it for full year. For example if a PPF account has 1 crore into it, and lets say the interest is 8% (just an example). You can withdraw 5 lacs out of the Public Provident Fund account and the remaining 95 lacs will earn 8% interest, which will be 7.4 lacs. This 7.4 lacs will be added back to 95 lacs and the total next year would be 102.4 lacs. This way one can keep on withdrawing some amount from it and let it grow too.

2. PPF extended with further contribution

In another option, you can choose to invest in your PPF account on regular basis even after extension. But this has to be done within 1 yr of PPF maturity (before the completion of 16 yrs in PPF). Note that in this case, you can only withdraw maximum 60% of your PPF amount in total within the entire 5 yrs block. Each year you can withdraw maximum once.

For example if your Public Provident Fund balance at maturity is Rs 1 crore. Then you can withdraw a total of maximum 60 lacs in entire 5 yr block. You can withdraw 20 lacs in first year, then 10 lacs in 2nd year and then 30 lacs in 4th year. But Once 60% is consumed , you cant touch any money further for the current block. Only when the 5 yrs are completed and new block of 5 yrs start, then your balance will be 40 lacs and then again the same rule applies. However note that at the start of a new 5 yr block, you can choose whether to continue the regular contribution or stop the contribution, like we discussed in point 1.

Important : If at the time of Public Provident Fund maturity , you will have the potential to invest more in your PPF account in coming years, then better invest more and more and only when its time to retire or when you cant contribute more, extend the PPF with “no further subscription” option.

Bank Officials have no idea about PPF Maturity Rules in detail

A lot of banks (SBI) and Post office officials have no idea about PPF rules in such a detail. They will tell you that it can be extended only 2 times and hence insist on closing your PPF account once 2 extensions happen after your PPF maturity. Tell them that you know what are the rules and also teach them.

Relationship Manager – Who are they and what they do ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

In this article, we will discuss “Relationship managers” . I got an interesting comment about “Relationship Managers” on my facebook wall from Prasad when we were discussing recent HDFC Life offering on 100% Free Financial Planning through snapdeal. Here is Prasad’s sharing on his relationship manager and what happened with him.

I am totally disappointed with HDFC Bank , every time my RM calls, he wants me to sell an insurance plan. If i tell him that I have other commitments at this point of time, he tells me he can get me a credit card if I dont have one and use it to buy the insurance plan.. It can’t go down more !! had so much respect to this bank.. But the concept of RMs is the most misleading thing !!!

Focus on this comment and re-focus on one sentence – “he tells me he can get me a credit card if I dont have one and use it to buy the insurance plan” . What does it say? What comes to your mind when you read this? It shows that there is an extreme focus on performance, there is extreme pressure on meeting targets on relationship managers. Their jobs are at stake at times and there is a do or die situation.

What are Relationship Managers ?

Relationship Managers are generally assigned to a customer who have more money and resources than others, who has more longer-term relationship with Banks, you are told that you will be taken special care by this relationship manager, at times you can directly talk to him for any issues. All the people having more than a certain net-worth or salary are assigned, relationship managers.

You are told that he is supposed to help you out whenever you want and he will be available to you all the time when you need him. However relationship managers are generally MBA Marketing guys, who are hired to take the sales to go up, they are responsible to bring business by hook or by crook. The worst part of relationship managers is that their attrition rate is so high, that by the time you figure out that you 90% is-bought and were 10% missold a financial product, the relationship manager is not working in the same company anymore, he has moved to another job now.

I read this funny incident on Hemant’s article comment section where Shinoj is sharing something about customer care people lie

Recently got a call from kotak mahindra bank regarding some bullshit insurance policy. Usually whenever marketing calls comes to my mobile, I use to say “sorry, Not interested”. But this time I decided to elaborate why I am not interested by telling a lie. All I told was “Actually I was interested in this product and had fixed appointment with your relationship manager on last friday. But he dint came. So not interested.” The marketing guy replied that he will check back. After two or three minutes i got a call from them again. “Sir we are extremely sorry. We called that relationship manager. He was not able to come to you because he met with an accident that day. shall he come today?”

What does a relationship manager know about you?

A relationship manager knows how much money do you have in your bank account, he knows for how long it is lying there. He knows the recent credit and recent debit from your bank account. He can figure out that one of your FD maturity and is now “available” for the massacre. He can then call you or meet you and show you an amazing product, if you want to invest and “if you have any money” . Obviously he knows you are sitting on a 10 lac cash right now. He is innocent, he is just telling you about something FYI, after all, that’s his job!

Remember, If a relationship manager recommends you some product and if you manage to make good returns or it turns out to be a good thing for you, it’s mostly accidental! So now, if you are an HNI or if you are going to get a relationship manager from your bank, broker or whatever it is, just make sure you know that its most probably going to add to your headache. He will keep on pushing you, convince you about opportunities and prove to you how your money is getting wasted sitting at your bank account. I remember a comment made by Subra on one of his articles on relationship managers and doctors.

“Doctors over-diagnose and Relationship Managers over-analyze your portfolio. Doctors recommend treatment and drugs, RMs recommend ULIP.”

Relationship Manager interview

I can only imagine the interviews which banks or companies take for hiring relationship managers.

Question : Tell me something about why you will be a good relationship manager at our bank ? And What qualities in you makes you a great candidate ?

Candidate 1 : I have completed this amazing course on portfolio construction which is internationally accepted. I always think from the viewpoint of the client and what will make his life more easy and great . His interest should come before mine and bank and I say this because I think from long term point of view.

Candidate 2 : I am a behavioural finance expert and with use of words I can create situations of guilt , excitement and trust . I can make sure that the clients common sense and logical reasoning will just go for a toss and I also know how to do this all without appearing too pushy and deceptive . I have completed PHD in powerpoint and excel and can use those tools at 3:00 am in the morning too to impress a client.

You know who gets hired ! 

Why did you hire me ? – Asked Candidate 2

“So that we can learn somethings from you , anyways they never tought us anything useful in our MBA”  – Says Interviewers

“And Why did you reject me ” –  Asked Candidate 1

‘Because you took the title we were offering you very seriously” – Said interviewers

Any comments or experiences?

Do you think this topic of “relationship managers” deserves a Satyamev jayate episode ! . I can see some crying face’s already here, not on the show. Did this article help you understand exactly what relationship manager do?

10 hidden EPF Rules which will blow your mind

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

We will discuss few EPF rules today. A small part of your salary (12% of your basic salary) is invested in something called EPF or Employee Provident Fund and an equal amount is matched by your employer each month.

This is what 95% of people know, but there are many things which a lot of people don’t know and this article is going to open some not known secrets about EPF rules. So let’s take them one by one in point’s format.

10 hidden EPF Rules

1: You can also nominate someone for your EPF

Do you know that there is also a “nomination” facility in EPF? The nominee will be contacted at the time of death of the person and handed over the money from the provided fund. However, if the nomination is not present (which you should check), it can rise to all sorts of issues while claiming the money.

There is a form called Form 2 which has to be filled to change or update the nomination. Please contact your company finance department or directly send the form to the EPFO department.

2: One can get pension under EPF

Do you know that there is something called EPS (Employee Pension Scheme) in the provident fund? The EPF part is actually for your provided fund and EPS is for your pension.

The 12% contribution made by you from your salary goes into your EPF fully, but the 12% contribution which your employer makes, out of that 8.33% actually goes in EPS (subject to a maximum of Rs 1250) and the rest goes into EPF. To understand it this way, a part of your employer contribution actually makes up your pension corpus.

But there are some caveats to this.

  • One is liable for pension only if one has completed the age of 58.
  • One is liable for pension only if he has completed 10 yrs of service (in case of more than one companies, the EPF should have been transferred, not withdrawn)
  • The minimum Pension per month is Rs 1,000
  • The maximum Pension per month is subject to a maximum of Rs 3,250 per month.
  • Lifelong pension is available to the member and upon his death members of the family are entitled to the pension.

EPF & EPS components

3: No interest is given on EPS (pension part)

You must be thinking that you regularly get compound interest each year on your contribution + employer contribution. But it does not work like that. The compound interest is provided only on the EPF part.

The EPS part (8.33% out of 12% contribution from your employer or Rs 1250 whatever is minimum) does not get any interest. At the time of PF withdrawal, you get both EPF and EPS.

4: You might not get 100% of your Provident Fund money

Imagine your contribution + employer contribution has been a total Rs 3,50,000 to date. Out of this 3,50,000 , suppose 2,50,000 has gone in EPF , and rest 1,00,000 has gone in EPS (for pension) . Now if you quit your job in the 6th year of employment and opt for withdrawal of your Provided Fund money (EPF + EPS actually), then do you think you will get a total of 3,50,000. NO!

That’s because you always get 100% of your EPF part, but for EPS there is a separate rule.

There is something called Table ‘D’, under which its mentioned how much you get at the time of exit from your job, there is a slab for each completed year and you get n times of your last drawn salary (depending on the completed year of service) subject to maximum to Rs 15,000 per month.

So if your salary, in this case, was Rs 30,000 per month, still you will be given only 15,000 * 6.40 = Rs 96,000.

Table D under EPS

Note that the table D is up to 9 yrs only, because if 10 yrs are crossed, then you are liable for a pension.

5: You can invest more in Provident Fund, its called VPF

You can always invest more than 12% of your basic salary in Employee Provident Fund which is called VPF (Voluntary Provident Fund). In this case, the excess amount will be invested in PF and you will keep on getting the interest, but the employer is not supposed to match your contribution. He will just invest up to a maximum of 12% of your basic, not more than that.

6: Withdrawing of EPF amount at job change is illegal

Almost everyone thinks that withdrawing of your Employee Provident Fund amount after a job switch is totally fine and allowed, however as per the EPF Rules, it’s illegal.

You can only withdraw your Employee provident fund money, only if you have no job at the time of withdrawing your money and if 2 months have passed. The only transfer is allowed in case you get a new job and you switch to it.

While there are no cases where EPF office tracks these things and takes up this matter, still just for your information you should know that if you got a new job and took it and then you are applying for withdrawal, it’s illegal as per law.

What in the case of EPS?

In the case of EPS, if the service period is less than 10 years, you have the option to either withdraw your corpus or get it transferred by obtaining a ‘Scheme Certificate’. Once, the service period crosses 10 years, the withdrawal option ceases.

Just for your information, you can withdraw your EPF money without the help of past employer signature by attesting your withdrawal form by a bank manager or some gazetted officer. I hope you are clear about EPF withdrawal rules.

7: One can opt-out of EPF if he wants

Yes!. I know this might be a surprising fact for many, but if one’s basic salary per month is more than Rs 15,000, he has an option to opt-out of PF and not be part of it. In which case he will get all his salary in hand (without anything deducted every month).

But the sad part is that one has to opt-out of Provident Fund at the start of his job. If a person has been part of EPF even once in his life, then he can’t opt-out of it. So if you have already had EPF in your life.

This option is not for you, but if you are new to the job and your PF account number still does not exist, you can tell your employer that you don’t want to be part of Employee provident fund. You will have to fill up form 11 for this.

8: Your EPF gives you some life insurance too

A lot of people might not know that in case a company is not providing group life insurance cover to its employees, in that case, the employee is given a small life cover through EPF. This is because there is something called Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme and your organization has to contribute 0.5% of your monthly basic pay, capped at Rs 15,000, as premium for your life cover.

However, companies that already have life insurance benefits to employees as part of the company, are exempted from this EDLI scheme. The bad part of this EDLI scheme is that the life cover under this option is very low and that’s the maximum amount of Rs. 60,000. While this is peanuts for most of the people in big cities.

For employees in small scale industries and small cities, this amount of Rs 60,000 will still count something.

9: You can use EPF money can be withdrawn at special occasions

So now you know that EPF withdrawal is not permitted if you are still working. But there are occasions when Employee provident fund withdrawal is allowed.

While you cannot withdraw it fully, you can withdraw a partial amount. Following is a list of events when you can withdraw the Provident Fund amount and the conditions you need to fulfill

1. Marriage or education of self, children or siblings

– You should have completed a minimum of seven years of service.
– The maximum amount you can draw is 50% of your contribution
– You can avail of it three times in your working life.
– You will have to submit the wedding invite or a certified copy of the fee payable.

2. Medical treatment for Self or family (spouse, children, dependent parents)

– For major surgical operations or for TB, leprosy, paralysis, cancer, mental or heart ailments
– The maximum amount you can draw is 6 times your salary
– You must show proof of hospitalization for one month or more with leave certificate for that period from your employer.

3. Repay a housing loan for a house in the name of self, spouse or owned jointly

– You should have completed at least 10 years of service.
– You are eligible to withdraw an amount that is up to 36 times your wages.

4. Alterations/repairs to an existing home for a house in the name of self, spouse or jointly

– You need a minimum service of five years (10 years for repairs) after the house was built/bought.
– You can draw up to 12 times the wages, only once.

5. Construction or purchase of a house or flat/site or plot for self or spouse or joint ownership

– You should have completed at least five years of service.
– The maximum amount you can avail of is 36 times your wages. To buy a site or plot, the amount is 24 times your salary.
– It can be avail of it just once during the entire service.

10: You can file an RTI application for EPF issues

Did you know that you can file an RTI applicable to get any kind of information regarding your EPF? You can file it if you are facing issues like no clarity about EPF balance, no action taken for your EPF withdrawal or transfer. To find out information about other issues on the Provident Fund. I have done a detailed post on how to file an RTI for your EPF issue.

Watch this video to know how to file RTI for EPF withdrawal or transfer issues:

UPDATES

  • In the recent budget 2015, the govt has made it clear that now an employee can choose between EPF and NPS. The employer will have to give this option.
  • Now the new system of UAN is in place for EPF, which has made a lot of things more simpler

Conclusion on EPF rules

The overall Employee provident fund rules are too complicated and very old. A common man does not know all these EPF rules, but knowing these minimum 10 EPF rules will help him in his financial life.

Minimum Balance in Credit Card – How does it work ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A lot of people have no idea on how their credit card works and what is the exact interest applications. Credit cards are in the market mainly to make money from customers by charging them huge interest because they overuse their credit limit or just fall for the minimum balance option and get into a debt trap. Let’s first understand a few concepts like billing cycle and grace period to start with

How Billing Cycle in Credit Card works?

The billing cycle is the duration for which you are liable to pay the due amount. e.g. from the period 6th Mar- 5th Apr. It means that your bill gets generated on the 5th of every month. This bill includes all the transactions done in the last 30 days. If you buy something on 7th Mar, that transaction will appear on the bill generated on 5th Apr and if you buy something on 4th Apr, still it appears on the bill generated on 5th Apr.

What is the meaning of the Grace period?

A grace period is a number of days up to when you have the liberty to pay off your last bill. For example, if the grace period is of 25 days, in that case, you will enjoy no interest for the next 25 days from the recent billing date. In our example, as the billing happens on the 5th of every month. You can pay off the bill till the 30th of that month, but after that you start paying the interest if you don’t pay the bill in full.

A maximum number of days without interest?

So now based on this info, what is the maximum number of days for which you can enjoy interest-free credit?? The answer is the maximum 55 days! It’s because your billing cycle length is 30 days and grace period is 25 days, so if you purchase anything on the first day of your billing cycle, in this example say 6th Mar, then it will actually appear on your bill of 5th Apr (30 days are gone) and you still get 25 days to pay off this loan, so total 30+25 days = 55 days of interest free credit. However, if you buy anything near the end of your billing cycle, like 4th Apr, then that will appear on the 5th Apr and you can pay off that in the next 25 days, so in this case total 26 days of interest-free credit.

How Credit card billing cycle works

Now this means that if you have any large purchase or any big-ticket size purchase to be made, it’s always better to make sure you do it exactly at the start of the billing cycle to get maximum out of your credit card.

The myth of Minimum Balance

Do you know that you start paying interest on your balance outstanding even if you have Rs 1 in outstanding? Yes, if you don’t pay off your full balance by the end of the grace period, you will be charged with the interest from that point of time. Even if you pay off the minimum balance, still you pay the interest on the rest of the outstanding balance. A lot of people live in this myth that just because they have paid the minimum balance, they will not pay the interest and can pay off the rest of the balance next time without any interest. This is totally wrong!

Paying the minimum balance is just going to make sure that you are not charged any penalty for late fees. That’s the reason “minimum balance” is there. The worst part of this whole minimum balance thing is that once you have any outstanding balance in your credit card, the concept of the grace period is lost. You keep on paying the interest on your outstanding balance at the end of your billing cycle. The grace period concept will only return once the 100% dues are cleared.

Impact of Minimum balance in credit card

This is one big reason why the credit card outstanding balance ballons to such a big amount once a person starts paying the only minimum balance. Let’s understand this with a picture.

Minimum balance is to make sure you don’t pay full?

Minimum balance is a trick, pure trick to make sure you pay less and get into a debt trap. Credit card companies know very well, that if they do not give any option to pay the minimum balance, people will have no other option than to think “let’s pay off my bill in full”. But they know that if they put an option saying “minimum balance”, most of the people will then think – “Ok! this month let me pay this small amount and next month I will settle the full amount.” Sadly this is the first step for most people to get into the debt trap, and this cycle never ends. As this strategy is a lifeline of credit card companies, they make sure they take full advantage of this.

How Psychology Affects Your Payment Behavior

A recent research study concluded that when a person looks at the amount of “minimum payment”, it can influence how much of his balance he decides to pay off each month. The study looked at how people’s behavior changed when they saw a specific number as “minimum balance” and when they did not see anything as “minimum balance”.

A random sample of 481 Americans was taken and divided into 2 groups . One group saw a mock credit-card statement showing a balance of $1,937, and an annual interest rate of 14%, but they didn’t saw any “minimum payment” option. However one the other hand, the other group also saw that the minimum payment of 2% of the balance was mandatory.

What they found is that people who did not see any minimum payment number desired to pay a higher amount of their balance — significantly more than 2% . Whereas people who were shown the minimum payment number were inclined to pay closer to 2% (meaning they’d be in debt longer)

Example of Ajay paying Minimum Balance

Let us see an example to understand all the concepts and working of credit cards. Let’s take an example of Ajay
credit card payment example

Suppose Ajay pays a minimum balance of Rs 300 and carries forward the outstanding balance for next month and also spends Rs 5,000 more in the next billing cycle.

In this case, as Ajay makes the minimum balance of Rs 300, then his outstanding balance would be Rs 9,700 as on due date (30th Apr). Now his total interest will be charged on this Rs 9,700 and that would be 3% of Rs 9,700 = Rs 291, which will be added to his outstanding amount and his final outstanding amount would be Rs 9,991 (just Rs 9 less than his original outstanding amount). Now as he carried forward an outstanding amount on his credit card, there is no concept of grace period. Now in this billing cycle as he has spent another Rs 5,000. That will be added to his old outstanding and the total would now be Rs 9,991 + 5,000 = Rs 14,991

Now this time, suppose his minimum balance is Rs 400 (just for example), and he pays it, then his outstanding balance will come down by Rs 400 and his final outstanding balance would be Rs 14,991 – 400 = 14,591. Now as there will be no grace period, he will be charged the interest of 3% on his outstanding balance of Rs 14,591, that’s 3% of 14,591 = 437.73 and will be added back to his outstanding, 14571 + 437.73 = 15,008 (approx)

Example of how Credit cards works

You can see that even after making the minimum balance he is actually having more than his previous outstanding amount because of interest paid. In case he does not pay the minimum balance also, in that case, he will also be charged a heavy penalty for late payment and that will be added back to his credit card debt. You can see how the minimum balance gets one into a debt trap.

Making Minimum payment affects your Credit Score

Do I need to give any other reason why one should stay away from minimum balance whenever possible? Making a minimum payment means not making full payment on time and the more number of times you do it, the worse your credit score gets each time. Read more on Improving your credit score here

Conclusion

Now you know all the terminologies in credit cards and how it works exactly. You also came to know about how minimum payments work and how it gets you into a debt trap. Try to make sure you become more responsible for your credit card payments. What do you think about it ? Give your views about this

How Hindu Succession Law applies if written WILL is missing ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you know that Hindu Succession Law applies for the division of wealth in case a person dies without a written WILL? I know you might have never thought about it because you are not aware of how ugly it gets when the will is missing. Money is so powerful that relations don’t take time to break. Family members can really fight over the issue of who gets how much out of the wealth and a lot of times unexpected things happen. Even people you never thought can suddenly appear claiming their share in the wealth.

A properly written will (and registered one) is the best way to make sure the wealth is passed on to different people as desired. But in reality people don’t write will and keep thinking “one day, I will surely write a will when ..”.

So now coming back to the point, if a will is written, then there is no confusion and the wealth is divided as per the WILL. However, if a WILL is missing, then the wealth is divided as per the Hindu Succession Act 1956 laws for Hindu’s, Jain’s and Sikh’s. We have a separate law for Muslims and Christians, but for this article’s sake, let’s just talk about Hindu succession Law applicable for the Hindu population.  Also, note that in this article mainly we are talking about the succession laws related to what happened after death of a MALE (not female).

HIndu Succession Act 1956

Concept of Legal Heirs under Hindu Succession Law

Legal heirs are well defined in the Hindu Succession Law. All the relations are categorized into two classes called class I and class II. The first right on wealth is of Class I heirs. Only if there is no one available in Class I, then relations under Class II can claim their rights. If Class I & Class II both are missing, then there is something called Agnates and Cognates, but we will talk about it in some time. For now, let’s understand Class I & Class II heirs under Hindu Succession Law

Class I relations 

  • Son/Daughter
  • Widow
  • Mother
  • Son/Daughter of a pre-deceased son (pre-deceased means “already Dead”)
  • Son/Daughter of a pre-deceased Daughter
  • Widow of a pre-deceased son
  • Son/Daughter of a pre-deceased son of a pre-deceased son (3 levels)
  • Widow of a pre-deceased son of a predeceased son

Class II relations 

  • Father
  • Brother/Sister
  • Son’s daughter’s son/daughter,
  • Daughter’s son’s son/daughter
  • Daughter’s daughter’s son/daughter
  • Sibling son/daughter
  • Father’s Parents
  • Brother’s widow
  • Father’s sibling
  • Mother’s parents
  • Mother’s sibling

If Class I & Class II is missing?

In the absence of heirs of Class I and Class II, the property is passed to the agnates and cognates of the deceased in succession. Now, one person is said to be the agnate, if he/she is related by blood or adoption wholly through the male’s chain line. Similarly, one person is said to be the cognate of the other if the two of them are related by blood or adoption, but not totally through males, i.e. there has to be some intervention by a female ancestor somewhere. The first preference is given to Agnates and only if there is no Agnate, then the Cognates comes into the picture. To understand Agnate/Congate in plain Hindi, It means “Bahut Door ke Ristedaar”, Agnates are “Door ke Rishtedar” from the chain of Male line and Cognates are “door ke relatives” , but does not compulsory from the chain of males in the family. But leave this point as of now, I think from an understanding point of view just Class I and Class II is enough for someone.

Note that if there are more than one Widow’s, then they get one share only and then divide it between themselves and a person’s immediate family will also be considered as one unit only.

Some Important Rules and Points

  • A child in the womb is treated as a separate child as if he/she was out in the world, He/she gets a separate share in the property.
  • No succession rights if the widow has remarried on the date of succession.
  • If a person has killed the person from whom he was supposed to acquire the wealth and has been declared as a murderer by law, then he loses his right to acquiring assets.
  • If there is no heir qualified to succeed to his or her property in accordance with the provisions of this Act, such property shall go to the Government.

For Muslims, the succession laws are defined under The Shariat Act. Under that 50% of the property goes to the Widow irrespective of the number of other legal heirs (remember in case of Hindu Succession Law its equal share between Widow and children) and rest is shared in equal parts between children

Some Examples

Now based on the learnings we had till now, let’s see 6 examples (not real) and how the wealth will be divided into each of those cases. I have tried to take different scenario’s.

Example 1

Lets say Ajay is dead without a will and he has 5 people in his family

  • Wife
  • Two son
  • One daughter
  • Father

In that case his wife, 2 son and 1 daughter will come under Class I , but his father will come under Class II , in that case all the 4 people under class I will get equal share in his wealth. So Wife will get 25% of the wealth, First son will get 25% , second son will get 25% and daughter will also get 25% of the wealth (married or unmarried) .

Example 2

Lets say Robert was 60 yrs old. He dies in an accident and has no WILL . Suppose he has following people in his family

  • Wife
  • Widow of his dead son
  • 2 Children of his Dead son

This is an interesting case , in this there are mainly 2 units . The first one is his Wife who will get 50% of his wealth and the next unit is the Widow and 2 son of his dead son who will equally get 50% of the wealth and legally, they all need to share it in equal amount . Note that this happens considering as if the son was alive, in which case he would have got 50% share and then his family chain would claim it from him. So understand that each family here would be 1 unit and all the members of that unit will again share it back between them with same principles.

Example 3 

Suppose Ajay is dead without a WILL , but his family consists of

  • A pregnant Wife
  • Mother
  • Brother

In this case , there are 3 entities in the Class I , those are Wife , Mother and the Child in the Womb, here 1/3rd wealth goes to Wife , 1/3rd goes to the unborn child and 1/3rd goes to Mother. Note that a child in the womb has same right as a born child.

Example 4 

Suppose Robert dies without a WILL and leaves behind

  • Father
  • Brother
  • 2 children of his sister (sister is dead)

In this case, you can see that Class I has no member, all the members are from class II , in which case Father will get 1/3rd wealth, Brother will get 1/3rd part and his sister’s children will get 1/3rd and will divide it between them in equal parts.

Example 5 

Ajay dies without a WILL , his family consists

  • Mother
  • Brother
  • 2 Sister’s
  • Widow of one of his dead Brother

Here you can see that only one person belong’s to class I (mother) and every one else is in Class II , hence 100% of the property goes to Mother (remember that Class II gets anything only if there is no one in class I)

Example 6

Ajay is the head of the family and lives in a ancestral house in Pune and has his personal savings in Bank FD and one flat in Mumbai which he had bought from his own funds. Now Ajay dies, but he was smart and he has written a WILL and written that everything goes to his Wife and no one else gets anything. Suppose his family has

  • Wife
  • Mother
  • Brother
  • Sister

Now what happens in this case ? In this case, his Bank FD and his flat in Mumbai will 100% go to his Wife and no one else, However his ancestral house in Pune will be divided equally between all the 4 members. This is because there was a flaw in the WILL . An ancestral property can not be passed on through a WILL . Ajay had made a mistake thinking that he can assign the flat in Pune to anyone he wants . A person can only pass on his wealth through WILL if he has earned it (think bournville) , if you have acquired it from your older generation, then it will be claimed by all the legal heirs, and in this case it will be passed on to all the legal heirs of the family , so 25% to each member as they are all into Class I for Ajay’s father

Hindu Succession Law in case of a Female death

Till now we saw all the rules which are applicable if a person in question was a dead male, but in the case of a female some points are a little different.  The property of a female Hindu dying without WILL shall be distributed according to the rules set out as follows –

1. Firstly, upon the sons and daughters (including the children of any pre-deceased son or daughter) and the husband;
2. Secondly, upon the heirs of the husband ;
3. Thirdly, upon the mother and father;
4. Fourthly, upon the heirs of the father; and
5. Lastly, upon the heirs of the mother.

Important Points in case of Women Property

  • If the women have acquired any property from his Father or Mother, in that case, the first right will be of the heirs of her father and not husband, in case of absence of his sons or daughters
  • If the women have acquired any property from her husband, in that case, the first right will be of the heirs of her husband, in case of absence of his sons or daughters

An Example

Suppose Supriya is a widow without any children dies without a WILL. She has acquired 1 flat in Mumbai from her Father’s, and has acquired one Flat in Pune from her Husband through a WILL, now suppose Supriya has 3 people in family.

  • Father in law
  • Mother in law
  • Brother in law

Now understand this case properly , As the person in question here is a Women, there will be distribution of her property like this-

The flat in Pune was acquired by her from her Father and as she also has no children, that flat in Pune will go to her Father’s legal heir. if Supriya had a Sister Poonam, in that case Poonam would be the legal heir of her Father and she would get 100% of the flat in Mumbai. Supriya’s Family would not be able to claim it legally.

However the Flat in Pune was acquired by Supriya from her husband and in this case , her husband’s legal heir would be claiming it, which means Supriya’s mother in law would get the absolute right on the Pune Flat because only she comes under Class I (Father and Brother come under Class II for a Male) .

Conclusion

In case a will is missing and the legal heirs get into a fight over the wealth, things can get ugly and the wealth might to someone which you might not have wanted or imagined. Hence writing a WILL should be on a high priority list. This article just gives very basic rules under Hindu Succession Law, in reality, things can get more complicated and it’s always advisable to hire a good lawyer in these cases. This article is just for information and awareness purposes. Dont take it as the complete guide.

Please share your case or define an imaginary case and let’s see how the wealth would be divided in that case as per Hindu Succession Law.