Replacing your life insurance policy might get tougher

Often, insurance policyholders are misled into replacing their policies with new ones, with promises of lower premia or better returns. Though the process wasn’t difficult so far, this might change soon. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has issued draft guidelines on replacement of life insurance policies. Now, an agent should secure the written consent of the policyholder, inform the existing insurer 15 days before submitting new proposal forms, and send the forms to the new company only after this 15-day period. In their policy documents, insurance companies must advise customers not to surrender, lapse or make paid-up existing policies before taking on a new one. They should also advise customers not to withhold full or part amount of the surrender value payable, and inform the new company of a customer’s existing policies. 
http://www.myallagents.com/Replacing-your-life-insurance-policy-might-get-tougher/details.html 

Top Mutual Funds in India

Deciding or searching for the top mutual funds generally requires lot of things to be taken into consideration. It is here that the role of the fund manager creeps in. The fund manager determines the performance of the fund for that particular period, so it is a compulsion that he is consulted prior to making the investment. Another important segment that should be taken care of is the proper selection of Assets. Asset Allocation is the art of bifurcating your finances into a mixture of Assets (stocks, bonds, etc). It is imperative that some amount of research is done prior to choosing a fund for investment. The performance of a mutual fund over the last few years does give an insight to it’s value. The Mutual fund performance 
http://www.myallagents.com/Top-Mutual-Funds-in-India/details.html  

Health Care Options in Retirement

Health care for seniors can be a labyrinth of programs, eligibility restrictions, coverage limitations, and overlaps, with terms varying widely from program to program and plan to plan. In addition to federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, some agencies such as the Veteran's Administration offer benefits for specific constituents and many states have different programs of their own with varied eligibility requirements. Additionally, unions and trade organizations may also offer retirement health care benefits. Which of these you may qualify for will depend on your individual circumstances. In general, however, most retirees have two main health care options: Medicare and managed care.

  http://www.myallagents.com/Health-Care-Options-in-Retirement/details.html 

The Role of Insurance in Your Financial Plan

The insurance decisions you make should be based on your family, age, and economic situation. There are many forms of insurance and, unfortunately, no one-size-fits-all policy. Life insurance, for example, is a virtual necessity if you have a spouse and children, but perhaps is less important for a single person. Disability insurance, which provides an income stream if you are unable to work, is important for everyon

Auto insurance protects you from damage to the often considerable investment in a car and/or from liability for damage or injury caused by you or someone driving your vehicle. It can also help cover expenses you or anyone in your car may incur as a result of an accident with an uninsured motorist. 

http://www.myallagents.com/The-Role-of-Insurance-in-Your-Financial-Plan/details.html 

The importance having life insurance settlement

When people age closer to their retirement age, having a secured financial future is essential especially if there’s no more monthly salary or paycheck coming in when a person enters their retirement age. When we take a deep look into any kind of factors that involves financial involvement, we can really see that it’s not really a good sight because of the seemingly endless increase of health care cost and also energy cost. Not to mention that the social security and its ability to finance is in serious doubt and many experts says that it might even become bankrupt in the following decades and yes you can really tell how financially scary is tha 
http://www.myallagents.com/The-importance-having-life-insurance-settlement/details.html 

Prepare for Income Tax Season

Tax season is here. Whether the taxpayer is paying taxes, or expecting a refund; organization will make the process of filing income taxes much less stressful. Buying an accordion organizer and labeling the sections according to specific needs will make the task less ardous. Keeping all tax forms in a section, medical and dental in a section, and other income in a section, will make tax paying time much less stressful.
As tax forms arrive in the mail, such as W-2' s, 1099's, SS-A'S, and K-1' s, the tax filer should keep them together in a section an accordion organizer. This way, preparing for income tax season, everything will be in a central location. Before making an appointment with the accountant, or self-preparing; the tax filer can make sure all needed information is together. The taxpayer needs to check this periodically as forms come in the mail. If something is missing, it will take time to replace it, so the filer shouldn't wait until the last minute. 
http://www.myallagents.com/Prepare-for-Income-Tax-Season/details.html

Financial planning tips for IT

Given the obvious strain on the public finances we already know that company and personal tax is set to rise next year.
2009/10 could be the year to bring forward plans to draw out retained profit, pay yourself a bonus or engineer a better trading year than you will experience in 2010/11.
Pensions provision is always an efficient way to get money from company into personal hands.
In most cases contractors can transfer virtually all of their income, tax free, into a pension although the budget has clipped the wings of the highest earners and they can now only invest £20k and be certain of higher rate tax relief.
Starting to drip feed higher amounts into a scheme now could help you to exploit depressed valuations on the equity and bond markets In particular US, emerging markets and smaller companies in general look set to prosper as the worse of the bad recessionary news is now out in the public domain.
http://www.myallagents.com/Financial-planning-tips-for-IT/details.html

Income Tax Return (e-filing)

E-filing is essentially another mode of filing your income tax return
In addition to the popular mode of printing and submitting your return at the income tax counters. It is a two step process:
a. Prepare your return using tax preparation software
: Enter your income tax data, such as, PAN, income, deductions, and TDS. Review your data for completeness and accuracy; and, generate your electronic return in XML format.

b.Upload your XML format return on income tax department website. Upon successful uploading, it will generate an acknowledgement form called ITR-V. If you do not use digital signatures, then you have to submit the ITR-V at the income tax counter
.http://www.myallagents.com/Income-Tax-Return-efiling/details.html

New income tax slabs introduced:- Budget 2010-11

New Delhi: Further relief for individual tax payers, a steep hike in allocations for welfare schemes and infrastructure were among the high points of India's budget for 2010-11 presented Friday by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who said the worst was over and promised high, inclusive growth in the coming years. "Today, as I stand before you, I can say with some confidence we have weathered this crisis well," Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, while presenting the federal budget for the next fiscal. http://www.myallagents.com/New-income-tax-slabs-introduced-Budget-201011/details.html

IRDA to make ULIPs investor-friendly

Insurance regulator IRDA, which has won its turf war with market watchdog SEBI over regulation of ULIPs, is expected to tighten norms for these schemes, including commission charges, to make them attractive for investors.

There would be stricter and stringent distribution norms, leading to lowering of commissions on the sale of such products, sources said.

Currently, commission charges are as high as 50 per cent of the first-year premium.

According to IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan, it will frame new guidelines for these products to make them more attractive for policy holders.

At the same time, the regulator plans to come out with directives to improve the transparency element of such hybrid products, which involve both investment and insurance.

The regulator will also try and address the issue of increasing the lock-in-period and raising life cover.


More Details :- IRDA to make ULIPs investor-friendly

Insurers may unveil new unit-linked offerings

With the regulatory dispute over unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) behind them, insurance companies are gearing up to launch new ULIPs.

Most insurers had put on hold new launches after the Securities and Exchange Board of India, asked them to take its permission before launching such products.

“Many investors will now go ahead and invest in ULIPs. Insurance companies that had put on hold new products will now bring them out,” said Mr Nageswara Rao, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IDBI Fortis Life Insurance. “We are also working on some new products”.

More Details :- Myallagents.com

Lakshmi Vilas signs MoU with LIC

To achieve its ambitious growth plan, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) plans to take both the organic and inorganic route to grow, its Managing Director and CEO, Mr K.S.R Anjaneyulu, said. Speaking to the media after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Life Insurance Corporation of India for marketing the latter's product offerings through LVB's branch network, Mr Anjaneyulu said: “we will require capital to keep pace with our growth plans. We plan to enhance equity for the bank and its subsidiary.” He said he would be unable to divulge more details at this point as such issues would have to be cleared by the Board
More Details :-Myallagents.com

LIC NEWS

1	No ULIP product approval is pending: IRDA
2	Will IRDA continue to regulate ULIPs?
3	LIC to invest Rs 2 lakh cr across various asset classes
4	How much term cover do you need?
5	LIC Housing eyes banking licence
6	LIC misses REC bus
7	LIC south zone eyes Rs 6,500-cr premiums for 2009-10
8	LIC buys aggressively in frontline companies
9	Life insurers want tax relief for maturity proceeds to continue

Life insurers want tax relief for maturity proceeds to continue

Life insurers want tax relief for maturity proceeds to continue

Life insurance companies want the current system of tax exemption for insurance maturity proceeds to be continued. The proposed Direct Taxes Code has suggested deduction of tax on the final payout, while exempting the policy premium at the time of contribution and the interest on it.


The insurers have made a representation to the Government that the Exempt Exempt Exempt (EEE) method of computation should continue as against the Exempt Exempt tax (EET) method proposed in the Direct Taxes Code.
Insurance products are driven by tax benefits. The January-March quarter, which is the tax planning season, contributed 45-50 per cent of the total sales of the industry, said Mr Nageswara Rao, Chief Executive Officer, IDBI Fortis Life Insurance.
The domestic insurance industry is at a nascent stage and taxing the maturity proceeds as proposed by the Direct Taxes Code will adversely impact the life insurance business and the industry. It will discourage investors to invest in long-term savings as it may result in unjustified tax burden especially on those customers who do not avail themselves of the benefit under Section 80C, said Mr T.R. Ramachandran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Aviva Life Insurance.
More details :-

Life insurers want tax relief for maturity proceeds to continue

Winning With Mutual Funds

Winning With Mutual Funds

A mutual fund (called 'unit trust' in Asia) is an investment vehicle that pools money from many individual investors. A professional fund manager invests and manages these funds into stocks, bonds and other securities.

People usually invest in mutual funds because it is offers the advantage of broad diversification (it spreads your money over tens or hundreds of stocks to reduce risk) and professional management. However, do remember that as broad diversification reduces risks, it also reduces return.

First, here is the bad news. If you speak to most people who have invested in unit trusts in Asia (especially Singapore) or in mutual funds, most would report losing money or just earning measly returns of 2%-4%. In fact, in the year 2004, it was reported in the Straits Times that 559,000 Singaporeans lost $680 million by investing their CPF in these funds. By going to the largest unit trust distributor Asia, you can easily calculate that only 6% of unit trusts beat the S&P 500 over a ten-year period. What are the chances of you placing your bet on this 6%? Chances are you would have had lower returns that the index, while still having to pay those hefty sales charges and annual management fees.

How about the US mutual fund market? On average, less than 10% of mutual funds beat the S&P 500 index each year! What's worse is that it is a different 10% each year. Less than 3% of mutual funds are able to beat the S&P 500 Index over a five to ten year period. So again, what are the chances of you beating the market through betting on the right fund? Only 3%! You have better odds at the Black Jack table. The worse thing is that the fund manager gets paid an annual management fee whether or not the fund makes money.

Why is it so difficult for most people to make money in mutual funds? There are four main reasons.

1) High Sales Charges & Management Fees

Most people buy mutual funds through banks and financial institutions at retail prices where there is a sales charge (front load) and high annual management fees (expense ratios).

In Asia, most banks & financial institutions sell unit trusts with a sales charge of 5%-6% and with annual fees of 1.5%-2%. It means that before you even begin, you are down 6.5%-8% on your investment and will be down another 1.5% every year. Your fund must outperform the S&P 500 by 6.5%-8% just to make it worth your while! Again, less than 10% of funds worldwide can achieve this every year and less than 3% can achieve this over five years.

2) Buying the Hottest Performing Funds
Most people choose funds based on high short-term returns. These are the funds that are normally pushed and advertised by financial retailers. They feature impressive and enticing returns like 'This fund was up +65% in the last six months'.

The fact is that the best short-term performing funds tend to also be big losers in the subsequent years and long term. Why? Because these funds tend to be invested in hot stocks or hot sectors where the stocks have been rising rapidly and fund managers buy, riding on the momentum. That is why they post very spectacular returns. However, strong buying activity tend to push these stocks to be overvalued and sure enough, the stocks will come crashing down in the next few years. Mutual funds that consistently beat the S&P 500 tend to be invested in non-hot sectors and do not post spectacular short-term returns.

3) Limited Selection of Unit Trusts Locally

If you are in Asia, then you are normally exposed to only a limited number of unit trusts. A check with fundsupermart.com (the largest Asian unit trust distributor) shows that there are just about 300 funds available here compared to over 8,000 funds in the US market.

When I made a search on the Top Performing Fund sold locally (year 2005), I was presented with 'Fidelity America USD' with a 10-year annualized return of 11.27%. (Recall that the S&P 500 returned 12.08% a year). So, even the top-performing fund couldn't beat the S&P 500 after deducting expenses & fees!!

4) Lack of Research Knowledge, Data & Tools

The single most important reason why investors lose money in mutual funds
is because they don't have the knowledge or necessary information to search for the top 3% of consistent performing funds at the lowest costs. Investors tend to buy on the advice of their bank managers, facts from the fund fact sheet or prospectus which does not provide enough information to select the right fund.