Wednesday 31 December 2008

How to go for Pension Plans or retirement Planning

How to plan for retirement. I am investing in PPF regularly but very actively looking for retirement from ICICI, HDFC or Metlife. Still not clear on what`s best, looking at following parameters to start with:
a. Minimal Premium Accumulation Charge ( Even if it`s there, then only for regular premium for first few years ).
b. No or very little premium on Top-ups
c. Clear guidelines on Annuity plan ( ICICI explains most clearly but doesn`t give all answers ).
d. Death Benefits ( I don`t want life insurance cover )
e. Any other charges if any should be clearly started in terms on figures on monthly/annual basis, also whether expenses are on NAV or premium paid.

Answer - Dear Friend, Plz. do a simple exercise. Call at least 5-6 Ins. agents from different Ins. cos. & give following details to agents. 

1. Age of Person, 60 years (the age u `ll start receiving ur pension)
2. Amount to be invested 1Crore
3. Plan selected - Immediate Annuity Plan.
4. Ask to give benefit Illustration of mly. pension till life of policy holder after that same pension to spouse till life & after that return of purchase price to the legal heirs of policy holder.

Plz. do this exercise with at least 5-6 Ins. cos. inform me for ur findings after completing ur exercise.

Why I`m asking to do so, bcoz when u `ll go thru this exercise, u `ll come to know what the meaning of large corpus creation is? Plz. do note as per my prev. reply of retirement corpus, calculate ur own requirement as per inflation no.

Thanks

Ashal ...

Monday 29 December 2008

Charges in ULIPs & Mutual Funds

My insurance agent told me that There are many internal charges in MF which are charged by MF companies but these charges are not visible to Normal investor.

He suggested : In case of ULIP, there are 2 things :

- charges are completely transparent then MFs
- And in long Term (10-15 yrs), ULIPs are cheaper than MFs in terms of charges.

Please suggest and draw some clear picture about charges.

-vivek

Dear vivek, there is totally opposite picture what ur Insurance agent had advised u. Let me explain.
In case of MFs there r only 3 types of charges applicable -
1. Entry Load - It can be avoided if u invest directly to ur MF bypassing ur MF agent.
2. Exit Load - It can also be avoided by remaining invested for certain time period in that particular plan.
3. Fund Management Charge - It`s charged as a %age of total assets under the plan. Normally it varies from 0.25% to 2.5% depending upon type of funds (Debt to Eq.) as well as expertise of fund co. for a same set of MF plans, lower FMC Plan is always advisable for investment.

In case of ULIP following 4 types of charges r applicable.
1. Prem. allocation Charge - It may vary from as low as 1% to as high as 65-70% of ur first year prem. & reduced year after year or may remain same at a constant level say 4% or 5%.
2. Mortality Charges = It`s the basic cost of insurance & again it varies among Ins. cos.
3. Policy admin charges - Some ULIPs charge as low as 20 Rs. per month where as some charge as high as 200-300 Rs. per month. Again not constant among Ins. cos.
4. Fund Management charges - From 0.5% to 2.5% depending upon the type of Fund (debt to Equity).

From the above list u can judge urself that in case of MFs there is only 1 charge FMC, which u `ll have to pay but in case of ULIPs there r several charges & no common benchmark is there to see the impact of these charges. I do hope the message is clear to u.

Thanks

Ashal...

Wednesday 10 December 2008

JEEVAN AASTHA POLICY FROM LIC

Dear friendS, This new plan of LIC although provides gtd. returns but plz. note the NET Yield is variable for different age person due to difference in prem. paid for the same amount of cover.

Some info for this policy is given below.
Minimum Sum assured = 150000 & can be purchsed in multiples of 30000
Max. Sum assured = No limit
Prem. type = single prem. only
Type of policy = Traditional endowment policy with gtd. return
Minimum entry age = 13 years (nearest birth day)
Max. entry age = 60 years (nearest birth day)
Policy term = 5 years or 10 years
in First policy year the SA = 6 times of Single prem. paid (appx.)
From 2nd year onwards SA = 2 times of single prem. paid (appx.)
Maturity SA = 1/6th of original SA
GTD. addition per year = 100 Rs. for per 000 maturity SA for 10Y plan & 90 Rs. for 5 year plan
Loan & surrender value = after completion of 1st policy year

Sample benefit illustration for a 35year normal healthy male stamdard life.
Age of life assured = 35 years
SA = 300000
Maturity SA = 1/6 of Initial SA = 50000
Single prem. = 48975
Term of policy = 10 years
In case of death during 1st policy year claim amount = Initial SA + GTD addition = 300000 + 5000 (@ 100 Rs. per 000 maturity SA for 50,000 maturity SA)
In case of death during 2nd to 10th year claim amount = 100000 (reduced SA) + GTD. addition of 5000 Rs. per year
Maturity amount after 10 years = 50000 (maturity SA) + 50000 (gtd. addition) + 10000 (lyality addition if any, not gtd.) = 110000 Rs.

From investment point of view (it `ll be the main sales pitch to be adopted by LIC agents al over india), the CAGR for above person = 8.43% with Loyality addition & 7.5% with out Loyality addition of 10000 Rs. which is non gtd.

My Take on jeevan Aastha plan -
It`s a carefully designed Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP). Yes u read it right, it`s indded a FMP as the term as well as returns r known to u before taking the policy & are almost gtd. in nature (just leaving loyality addition as a non gtd. one).
Being an ins. plan offered by the largest Ins. co. of india, it`s also Tax efficient too. In the first year the SA is almost 6 times of single prem. hence 20% prem. to SA rule is taken care off at the time of investment. being investment oriented policy, from 2nd year the SA is reduced immediately to have lesser expenses for mortality charges.

The biggest catch lies in the GTD. bonus calculation.
PLZ. NOTE THE GTD. ADDITION `LL BE CALCULATED ON THE MATURITY SA ONLY WHICH IS 1/6TH OF INITIAL SA.

As the maturity amount is fixed for the policy term, the Net yield (CAGR) `ll be higher for persons in the age bracket of 13-35 years & `ll be very low for the persons in 45-60 age bracket. Anywhere from 6% to 7%. This is due to higher mortality charges for this age bracket.

My Judgement - 
This Policy is not suitable for any age class. for Y`ger people (20-35 age), the 10 year term can provide better returns from market linked instruments like Eq. & Debt. MFs. For older age people the return is not that much attractive. In fact for the persons who r in their 50s, the 10.5% bank FDs & PPF & Bhavishya Nirmaan Bonds (BNB) of Nabard r better option. as By that time the Ins. needs r over & even if one purchase it for ther partial ins. benefit, the real ins. is very poor.
- PLZ. DON`T TAKE THIS POLICY. -

Thanks

Ashal