Kavitha Menon's Blog

Busting some myths about Financial Planning Kavitha Menon kavitha@ppfas.com While most of us would agree that a financial plan is a good thing, there are many mental blocks that prevent you from making one for self and family. These blocks are a result of many myths around financial planning. Let's deal with these myths to make the decision of making a plan easier. Myth 1: Financial Planning is about investments - Life stage planning, insurance tax planning and estate planning are important building blocks of a good Financial Plan. Buying investments products is just one step of many. Myth 2: Its expensive - Financial planning helps with a life time of money management. Although the initial costs for professional services looks high, amortize it over your life time and you will realize that these services are in fact cheap. I must add that there is no concept of free financial planning. If someone is offering you that, then you will pay with buying the wrong products. The costs of

HUF or Hindu Undivided Family is defined under the Hindu Law as a family that consists of all persons lineally descended from a common ancestor, including wives and unmarried daughters. It is a separate entity in the eyes of law. It can own assets and generate income from rent, profession and business. All income that arises on the investment of the HUF's funds and utilization of its assets is separately assessed and taxed. As the name suggests only Hindus governed by the Hindu law can create such an entity. Though Jain and Sikh families are not governed by the Hindu law; they can still be treated as a HUF. Unfortunately persons of other religion such as Muslims, Christians or Parsis do not have such a facility . The oldest male member of the Family is the Karta while other male members are called co-parceners. The female members are simply called members. It is the Karta whose name the HUF carries and it is he who signs documents on behalf of the HUF entity. For Example if there i