Kavitha Menon's Blog

"Your charges are way too high!" Said my client, when I recommended he get himself a plan made. Every month he would call me to ask about appropriate instruments to put his savings into. As a financial planner I know such advise based on limited information about his financial situation was not only inappropriate but could also be detrimental to his long term wealth. He however was happy that he was earning well, saving regularly and was well versed with investments and hence was ok with the current set up. I would like to compare investor's relationship with their advisors with that of a patient with a chemist and a family doctor. You go to a doctor for advice, take a prescription to the chemist and buy a product. But hey! You need to pay your doctor a fee and plus pay your chemist a margin on the product purchased. Would it not be really smart to simply ask the chemist for a prescription? He is earning a profit from the product isn't he! When it comes to mone...

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...