I recently developed a CTC (Cost to Company) calculator designed to provide clear insights into salary breakdowns. I’m hoping it can be a useful tool for anyone navigating compensation details and financial planning.

If you want to check it out, try it here: CTC Calculator

I'm currently living abroad and downloaded the Kuvera app to start investing in the Indian market. However, during registration, it’s asking me to verify that I am not an NRI. Does this mean that people living outside India can't invest in India, or is there a different process? I’d appreciate any guidance on how NRIs can legally make investments in India and whether there are specific platforms or requirements for this. Thanks!

Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/axis-capital-wanted-to-win-some-business (my newsletter Boring Money. If you like what you read, please visit the original link to subscribe and receive future posts directly in your inbox)

--

A company that wants to borrow money has a few options. It can borrow from a bank. Or it can borrow from non-bank investors. Or it can issue bonds and borrow from the market.

Borrowing from a bank is a bit uncool. Banks are risk-averse, might need more security than the company might want to give, or just unwilling to lend to it.

So the company goes to an investment bank! If the company wants to borrow money quickly and is cool with paying a fair bit of interest, the investment bank might find a willing private lender. But if the company wants the best, market-decided interest rate? No problem, the investment bank can then help the company do a debt offering. It will help price its bonds, market them to investors, and make sure the debt offering goes through.

The investment bank is the middleman. It takes no risk, because it does not lend to its client. [1] It just ensures that someone out there is willing to take on that risk.

Anyway, here’s what I wrote a few months back:

Investment banking is notoriously competitive. You’re constantly competing with tens of other banks looking to do deals. In most cases there is little to differentiate you from the bank across the street. You probably hire people from the same set of colleges, suck their souls the same way, and the suckers then move around within the same set of banks.

So if a client comes to you and tells you that he wants to do a plain old vanilla debt offering—what exactly is the differentiator that you’re going to offer? The client company wants to sell bonds to investors, give them a fixed coupon rate, and it wants a bank to prepare the documents, do the disclosures, market the bonds to investors, etc. It doesn’t get simpler than that!

An investment bank’s main job is relationship-building. And part of that relationship-building is going overboard with what it promises its client. Last month, SEBI issued an enforcement order against Axis Capital, [2] yet another investment bank which became overzealous in its attempt at winning business. Here’s what happened:

1. Sojo Infotel, a small no-name tech consultancy, wanted to borrow money by selling bonds.
2. It didn’t want to use that money to run its business! It wanted to buy shares in another company. Presumably, the interest that it would have to pay to borrow for something as risky as this would be high.
3. But the interest rate wasn’t high! Axis Capital, Sojo’s investment bank, guaranteed to repay the bond investors in case Sojo defaulted. Because of this guarantee, Sojo had to pay a coupon rate of 8.48%—that’s only marginally higher than a fixed deposit these days.

Axis Capital was the middleman helping Sojo raise money from bond investors. Axis Capital was also a participant guaranteeing the same bonds. SEBI doesn’t like that.

Boring Money is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The mechanics

Sojo borrowed ₹260 crore ($31 million) by selling bonds. It then used part of that money to buy shares of Lava International, a mobile phone company. The funny bit though is that the people that owned Sojo, also owned Lava. Of the ₹260 crore, the first ₹13 crore went to buy out another investor in Lava. ₹100 crore went to Lava itself. Eventually, Sojo ended up owning 2.5% of Lava for ₹113 crore. Not sure what happened to the rest of the money.

The plan was that Lava would go public in a definite timeline—15 months. Sojo could then sell its shares and use that money to repay its bond investors. Leaving aside Axis Capital’s guarantee, whether Sojo’s bond investors were paid or not depended on Lava going public.

But these were secured bonds. If Lava failed to go public or if Sojo failed to repay for whatever reason, the investors needed something to ensure that there was still a way they could recover their money. Sure, the Axis Capital guarantee was that way, but that was the weird stuff that the investment bank did. On paper, the bond investors needed other collateral.

That security was… Lava shares! If Lava failed to go public, Sojo’s bond investors would end up getting Lava shares! [3] And those shares, considering the company would have just failed to go public, couldn’t be worth a lot. Of course, none of this mattered. No matter how dumb the security backing the bonds was, Sojo still sold the bonds at a coupon rate only a tinge higher than a fixed deposit.

Because Axis Capital guaranteed Sojo’s bonds!

Playing both sides

Another oddity is how the agreement was structured.

Axis Capital, the investment bank, represented Sojo. Another Axis company, Axis Trustee Services, represented the bond investors. This is normal stuff. A group of investors needs a trustee to represent its interest and hey Axis was already involved so no reason for it not to be Axis Trustee. Well, here’s a bit from the bond offering document:

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any of the Transaction Documents, upon, occurrence of an Event of Default, an Asset Sale Event shall be deemed to have occurred in respect of the Debentures. Upon the occurrence of an Asset Sale Event, the Parties irrevocably agree that that the Debenture Trustee shall be bound on the instructions of the Majority Debenture Instructing Group to intimate the Issuer of the occurrence of such Asset Sale Event and Axis Capital shall (as Sale Arranger) be entitled to sell any of the Secured Assets…

If Sojo defaulted, or if Lava didn’t go public in time, two things would happen:

1. Axis Trustee would intimate the issuer of the bonds, that is Sojo.
2. Axis Capital would be entitled to sell any of the secured assets. That is, Lava’s shares.

Oh, Lava tried but failed to go public, so all of this actually happened. Here’s SEBI describing the events:

On October 27, 2023, Axis DT invoked pledge over 26 % shares of LIL held by its Promoters, which were pledged by the promoters of Sojo as security cover for NCDs issued by Sojo. As ACL was unable to find a purchaser for the pledged shares, it led to triggering of Asset Purchase Event on March 15, 2024, which required ACL to fulfil its “underwriting commitment”

Axis Trustee, since it represented investors, got hold of Lava’s shares since they were the collateral against the bonds. But then, somehow, Axis Capital had to find a buyer for those shares? Axis Capital was the investment bank representing Sojo! It wasn’t working for the bond investors or for the trustee. It seems to have just turned around, unmasked itself, and suddenly started working for Axis Trustee instead? [4] [5]

Hidden debt

Axis Capital took a shitty deal it wasn’t legally allowed to. Sure, one reason it did that was to win Sojo’s business. But that wasn’t all! The larger reason seems to be that it wanted Lava’s business.

Lava was to go public within 15 months of the Sojo bond offering. A company that wants to go public needs an investment bank. If Lava’s owners had already used Axis Capital to borrow money at an unusually low interest rate, of course they would then use Axis Capital again to take Lava public. (Axis Capital was, in fact, the lead manager for Lava’s failed IPO.)

I wouldn’t be surprised if this entire episode happened the other way round. Axis Capital was to be the lead manager for Lava’s IPO, but Lava needed money. It could be bad for the IPO should it borrow directly—debt looks bad on a balance sheet—so Axis Capital figured that Lava/Sojo’s owners could just use Sojo as a proxy to take on debt and pass on the money to Lava.

For now, SEBI has restricted Axis Capital from taking on any more debt related assignments. There might be fines later, but this is all just the securities related stuff. But the meat is in the banking related stuff. That’s something SEBI has left for the RBI.

Axis Bank [6] owns Axis Capital. If Axis Capital guarantees debt in a distorted deal such as this, it is effectively extra risk that isn’t showing up on Axis Bank’s books! Axis Capital just lost ₹174 crore because of Sojo, and SEBI has identified at least 5 other instances where it did the exact same thing. If it happens to lose similar amounts on all of them, it could be more than ₹1000 crore ($120 million) of lost money.

RBI should be all over this very soon.

--

Footnotes:

[1] Okay, not no risk. An investment bank underwriting a bond offering might take market risk. If the bond offering does not get enough subscribers, it can buy some of the bonds so that it can sell them later in the open market. But this risk is part of the service!

[2] SEBI’s order was inspired by a blog post! Is Axis Capital an Investment Bank or a Hedge Fund?

[3] Lava shares wasn’t the only security, but it was the main one. Other security included Sojo’s shares, Sojo’s assets, and also a personal guarantee by Lava/Sojo’s owners.

[4] Another matter of concern here is… why was Axis Trustee okay with outsourcing its responsibility to Axis Capital? Would it have done this had the two not been part of the same Group?

[5] A slightly facetious way to look at this is, maybe Axis Trustee just wanted to save money? Axis Capital trying to sell Lava’s shares was a farce anyway. Someone buying the shares of a private company does so with the hope that the company would go public in the future and they would make money. Who would want to buy the shares of a company that provably would not go public? Since Axis Capital had to pay up anyway, Axis Trustee might as well save some cash by asking it to do the formality.

[6] Disclaimer: I own a teeny amount of Axis Bank stock. I should probably sell it off so that I don’t need to include this dumb disclaimer again.

Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/axis-capital-wanted-to-win-some-business

Hello r/IndiaInvestments,

I am Vishal Jain. I have over 25 years of experience in financial services building Index Funds and ETFs.

I was also part of the team that launched India’s first Gold ETF in 2007 - GoldBeES. In India, there has always been a deep-rooted affinity for physical gold, whether for consumption or investment. However, I believe that in the coming years, the investment demand for gold will increasingly shift towards mutual fund products like Gold ETFs and FoFs due to their ease, efficiency and transparency.

This indicates significant potential for growth in gold investments via the mutual fund format. However, there's still much work to be done in terms of educating investors about these products—and that’s where I aim to assist.

Feel free to ask me anything about Gold as an Asset Class!

The Information provided during this Ask me Anything (AMA) session is for general knowledge and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. 

Investing in mutual funds and other financial products involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Before making any investment decisions, investors should conduct their own research and seek advice from qualified financial advisors to ensure that the respective products and strategies are suitable for their specific financial situation and objectives.

Ask your investing related queries here!

The members of /r/IndiaInvestments are here to answer and educate!

Alternatively, you could join our Discord and seek answers to your queries

If you're looking for reviews on any of these following, follow the links:

• which bank or brokerage to use
• which fund house is more capable and trustworthy
• which investing platform to use,
• which insurance company is reliable

Generally speaking, there is no best stock, or fund, or bank, or brokerage, or investment platform.

Answers are always subjective to your personal needs, but use those threads a starting point for you to look at what other Redditors have to say about a company, product, fund, or service.

You can then ask a more specific question about what product or service to buy, once you are able to frame your personal situation.

NOTE If your question is I got 10k INR, what do I do to get most returns out of it?, or anything similar; there is no single answer to this question. But we will also need A LOT MORE information if we are to provide some sort of answer:

• How old are you?
• Are you employed/making income?
• How much? What are your objectives with this money?
• Do you have any loan, or big expense coming up?
• What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know it's 100% safe?)
• What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Have you invested in equity before?)
• Any other assets? House paid off? Cars? Partner pushing you to spend more?
• What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs?
• Any big debts?
• Any other relevant financial information about you, that will be useful to give you an informed response.

Beware that these answers are just opinions of fellow Redditors and should only be used as a starting point for your research. This is NOT financial advice, in legal sense of the term.

You should strongly consider consulting a registered fee-only financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Ideally, such advisors should be registered with SEBI, and have a registration number.

Links to previous threads.

I've a current account in HDFC. I've received these two messages from HDFC.

KYC Alert!
A periodic KYC update is needed for your HDFC Bank Cust ID XX as per RBI Guidelines. Please complete it soon by visiting the nearest branch.

HDFC Bank Cust ID XX KYC Due,
Verify address "C/O"
SMS "KYCYES" to 5676712 if no change in profile.
If incorrect, Visit the branch.

I've other accounts in other banks including current account and I've not received any such communication.

• Does only HDFC follow such rules from RBI?
• What do other banks do?

Could someone share some insights?

Hi, I (20M), just got a job with in-hand salary of 120k/month. On the side I have some small freelance clients/ a micro-saas that nets me around 60–70k extra at most (hopefully scale this much higher in the coming months)

I want to scale my SaaS application so I have two people working with me, so around 50k aside from that.

I do not need to send anything to my family (for now at least)

So let’s even it and take my income at 120k/month, from my Salary.

I have no extra expenses other than hardly 4-5k on myself, I live with my parents (but probably need to rent out a flat for myself later, maybe early 2025)

I want to invest, save and spend on myself too.

I am very interested in real-estate, but such is not possible with this low of a capital.

How do I plan my income like a smart investor?

Edit: Guys, my initial post was about getting advice on investments, please stop asking me to send you money/help you get clients/take you in for a job. I’ve had about a 100 dms now…

I got a new term at the start of this year through an agent whom I know personally, even though I was reluctant to do so. I initially wanted to buy it via Ditto or directly via the insurer's website, in this case Max, since I had already research over which policy would suit my needs the best. He was hell bent on selling me ULIP, which I avoided. Now, after just one installment out of total 10 years, I want to get rid of his commission. I believe I can get the same policy way cheaper directly. Any suggestion on how to do it? Any input will be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I had an planned hospitalization recently, the pre-approval letter mentioned "single private room AC" i was totally fine with this, but when my relationship manager from the insurance company called me to check on my experience while i was in the hospital,out of curiosity i asked him that my policy has a "no roomrent limit" clause in it, but why was i authorised only for single private ac room? He told me cashless benefit is only extended till single private ac,if i wanted suit room i could claim reimbursement.

I was totally more than happy with the private room so never bothered also the claim process was seemless. If anybody has different experience with this scenario pls feel free to comment.

Policy-Nivabupa Reassure.

Kindly let me know if there are any tax implication or any cost related to consolidation of different folio numbers, in the same fund house? For example, if I have multiple ICICI fund Folio number in equity fund will there be tax implications if I move all of the different Folio numbers into one target Folio number? and can equity and debt or bonds of same fund house be consolidated?

This Dhanteras, the sub will host an AMA on gold as an asset class, by Vishal Jain from Zerodha Fund House.

We've seen a lot of debate this year around gold, especially around the taxation and valuation changes around SGBs, and a lot of people have asked what is a better instrument for taking exposure to gold, whether to take treat it as an asset class, and its role in someone's portfolio.

We've had an AMA by Vishal a few months back, and he might not need introductions to a few of you, but for those who are new to the sub -

About Zerodha Fund House:

Zerodha Fund House was launched last year. From their own blog, their aim is to offer simple and easy-to-understand mutual funds that could bring in the next ten million investors. Their philosophy is simple - to offer only low-cost index funds and solutions that investors can use for all their goals.

Vishal Jain:

Vishal has over 25 years of experience in financial services including 20 plus years building ETFs and passive products.

He started his career in the AMC industry as part of the founding team of Benchmark AMC which launched India’s first ETF in 2001 - Nifty BeES, as a Fund Manager. Post the acquisition of Benchmark AMC by Goldman Sachs AMC India in 2011, he was Chief Investment Officer of the Passive business. He was part of the team that brought the first Indian Gold ETF to the market.

After a short entrepreneurial stint in the food business, he joined Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd (earlier Reliance Mutual Fund) in 2016 as Head of the ETF business where he oversaw scaling of the Passive business from Rs.7,500 crore to Rs.55,000 crore.

He has been part of various committees and groups relating to development of passive products in India. Recently, he was part of the “Working Group on Passive Funds” constituted by SEBI to recommend changes in Regulations and Market Infrastructure to foster the growth of ETFs and Index Funds.

The AMA will focus primarily on "Gold as an Asset Class" and is scheduled for 29th October, 2024. Given the recent discussions around this topic, I'm pretty sure you would questions around this topic.

If you are unavailable on these days and would like to have your questions answered, leave them here or PM the mods, and we'll try and have them answered by the Zerodha AMC team. You can also post your questions now, to give them time to prepare their responses (answers would be in the AMA thread on 29th).

Hi,

I like reading financial books, especially those related to personal finance. I'm financially savvy and aware of mutual funds, budgeting, and personal finance concepts.

From this sub, I understand that "Let's Talk Money" and "Let's Talk Mutual Funds" are geared toward the Indian context. Usually, personal finance books are Western-centric or quite generic. Since these books are more about the Indian context, I'm considering getting them.

In that sense, is it worth reading them?

This is the promotional content thread for this month. This will be a recurring thread where we waive the "no self promotion" rule that we enforce so strictly.

So if you have a blog, feel free to share a recent article that you feel is interesting and applicable. If you've made some tools / products, tell us about it. If you updated something you'd made give us some details.

Please, if you share something, be engaged, and answer queries from the community. Don't just post something and disappear.

Rules:

- Post about your own 'thing' on a top level comment.
Don't respond to another top-level comment with your own 'thing'. Link only comments will be removed - you must provide a summary about what you are linking.

- No mailing list signup comments

We will allow links to a webpage that contains a mailing list sign-up form, but only if the page you are sharing contains meaningful content and you don't highlight the existence of a mailing list in your comment on Reddit.

We don't want our subscribers to be spammed.

- Paywalled features and content

There may be paid features locked or some articles maybe available on payment, but if the entire article cannot be viewed for free or the results of a tool are blocked without payment then such a submission may be removed.

If collection of user data is required to use the thing you are sharing we STRONGLY encourage you to contact the moderation team first. If the moderation team has concerns about data you collect, the comment may be removed and may not be reinstated in a timely manner.

- No 'special deals' for Reddit. We're not looking to make a sale and deals thread.

- No referrals

- No investment opportunities.

---

Please upvote what you like, but focus on providing respectful feedback for what you don't like. Many people who make something would love to hear from you, so be a community, and be kind.

Wondering whether you should post here? Take a look at the previous promotional threads.

Ask your investing related queries here!

The members of /r/IndiaInvestments are here to answer and educate!

Alternatively, you could join our Discord and seek answers to your queries

If you're looking for reviews on any of these following, follow the links:

• which bank or brokerage to use
• which fund house is more capable and trustworthy
• which investing platform to use,
• which insurance company is reliable

Generally speaking, there is no best stock, or fund, or bank, or brokerage, or investment platform.

Answers are always subjective to your personal needs, but use those threads a starting point for you to look at what other Redditors have to say about a company, product, fund, or service.

You can then ask a more specific question about what product or service to buy, once you are able to frame your personal situation.

NOTE If your question is I got 10k INR, what do I do to get most returns out of it?, or anything similar; there is no single answer to this question. But we will also need A LOT MORE information if we are to provide some sort of answer:

• How old are you?
• Are you employed/making income?
• How much? What are your objectives with this money?
• Do you have any loan, or big expense coming up?
• What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know it's 100% safe?)
• What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Have you invested in equity before?)
• Any other assets? House paid off? Cars? Partner pushing you to spend more?
• What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs?
• Any big debts?
• Any other relevant financial information about you, that will be useful to give you an informed response.

Beware that these answers are just opinions of fellow Redditors and should only be used as a starting point for your research. This is NOT financial advice, in legal sense of the term.

You should strongly consider consulting a registered fee-only financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Ideally, such advisors should be registered with SEBI, and have a registration number.

Links to previous threads.

I'm planning to take my first joint home loan of around 40L and want to make sure I’m well-prepared before choosing a bank.

What key terms and conditions should I be aware of? Also, what factors should I consider when selecting the right bank for the loan? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Hi I'm new to this,

So I found that there are multiple options. Such using an app like Groww, Kuvera, or buying from MF central, or even buying from the website of the fund management company itself like UTI.

So which one should I chose? What are the criteria that should affect my choice? I mean the reasons that I should prefer one over the other.

Thanks

You can discuss something like these, ITT:

• What brokerage are you using currently?

• Is the brokerage structure suitable to your needs?

• How is the availability of the brokerage service?

  Do you experience issues with login/authentication? Do you experience issues with posting trades to NSE and BSE? Do you experience issues with executing trades at NSE and BSE?

• How do you rate the brokerage reports provided by the brokerage house?

• How are the ancillary products and services provided by the brokerage house?

• Do you use Smallcase to manage your portfolio, and how was the service?

You can ask for a general review of a particular product, or service that you are researching - Is X good? Is it recommended for long-term delivery trades?, but please avoid asking for personal advice.

The discussion is for consumption by a broader audience. For advice regarding your personal situation, the bi-weekly advice thread is recommended.

Personal advice queries and comments will be removed to ensure that older threads provide sufficient historical reviews on products and services.

Reviews posted here can be relied upon by newer members to evaluate customer experience with these products. Please confine the thread only to reviews or requests for reviews of products and services.

Previous Links

Ask your investing related queries here!

The members of /r/IndiaInvestments are here to answer and educate!

Alternatively, you could join our Discord and seek answers to your queries

If you're looking for reviews on any of these following, follow the links:

• which bank or brokerage to use
• which fund house is more capable and trustworthy
• which investing platform to use,
• which insurance company is reliable

Generally speaking, there is no best stock, or fund, or bank, or brokerage, or investment platform.

Answers are always subjective to your personal needs, but use those threads a starting point for you to look at what other Redditors have to say about a company, product, fund, or service.

You can then ask a more specific question about what product or service to buy, once you are able to frame your personal situation.

NOTE If your question is I got 10k INR, what do I do to get most returns out of it?, or anything similar; there is no single answer to this question. But we will also need A LOT MORE information if we are to provide some sort of answer:

• How old are you?
• Are you employed/making income?
• How much? What are your objectives with this money?
• Do you have any loan, or big expense coming up?
• What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know it's 100% safe?)
• What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Have you invested in equity before?)
• Any other assets? House paid off? Cars? Partner pushing you to spend more?
• What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs?
• Any big debts?
• Any other relevant financial information about you, that will be useful to give you an informed response.

Beware that these answers are just opinions of fellow Redditors and should only be used as a starting point for your research. This is NOT financial advice, in legal sense of the term.

You should strongly consider consulting a registered fee-only financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Ideally, such advisors should be registered with SEBI, and have a registration number.

Links to previous threads.

Recently watched a video on YT that says investing money in market dips along with the normal SIP significantly boosts returns in the long run.

I got an idea: what if I create a script that notifies me of whenever the fall is happening? But daily fluctuations will be way too much noise, so I decided - the best way to know if there's a dip is to check if the trend is downward for the last 7 days. I also analyzed 7 days rolling returns for every day from 1st Jan 2024 to 9th Oct 2024 and I found at least 1 such occasion every month where all my shortlisted funds (I'm investing in Strategy based Indices coz ig I can afford the risk) were negative. One thing common for all such occasions was the last 7 days rolling for nifty 50 were less than -1.

So my question is:

Is this a good idea for me to deploy my money every time such a dip happens? I do not have an SIP and I'm not planning to start one either and I have my reasons (unpredictable income in both extremes - extremely high to no income for months). I have been manually investing for months now and I don't see a problem with keeping myself disciplined either. How good of an idea is it to deploy my money based on this strategy?

Edit:

The rolling returns data:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GtmSXYX6NXpRDGBA7VpDPOZhQJ8OcxeB/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103127046705293465809&rtpof=true&sd=true

The github repo with the script: https://github.com/shreyaschavhan/crash-alert.py/

I had given this reply in another reply. One reply mentioned to keep this as a topic, so that anyone can directly check this.

I will mention an overview simplied process here. Some details might changes or might get upgraded in upcoming months, as the process is being simplified.

Once the claim is paid only Partially / Unpaid / Rejected / Terminated due to any reason where you were honest in your disclosure , statements,

Then email you receive from the insurance company, you need to reply on it. And if you mention that you don't agree with the decision, then proceed with the following

Never mention in your reply email that you will approach Insurance Ombudsman.

Step 1 :- Mention in writing, an email to the insurance companies from which they have sent you the final decision, that you are unsatisfied with the final decision, and want them to review the claim. Ask them on what basis the decision is being taken and what are the reason for the same.

Note :- Don't just rely on Insurance intermediaries wording / Statement that everything will get resolved automatically. This reply email needs to be sent within 30 days from the final decision email / clarification sent to the customer.

Step 2 :- If the claim still stands rejected, you can escalate the case to the insurance company's grievances email id. Why is this process extremely important ?????

Note :- Because you cannot approach Insurance Ombudsman directly. As per rule, if you disagree with insurance companies decision, you should give a chance so that the insurance company can justify their decision.

Step 3 :- Once you escalate the case, you have upto 1 year to approach the Insurance Ombudsman. So it is important to reach this benchmark. But still, try to approch the Insurance Ombudsman as soon as possible.

Step 4:- You need to register yourself to the bima bharosa portal, and mention the details of your case, and all details as mentioned.

Note :- there are total 17 Insurance Ombudsman offices in India, as per district/ states. There are a lot of cases lined up. It will take time, from 3 months to upto 1 year or more for your case to reach Insurance Ombudsman.

Step 5:- You are called by Insurance Ombudsman at their office. You/ Insured / Nominee, the insurance Ombudsmen and Insurance company lawyer must be present. Your side of the case will be heard, the insurance company will provide details as per Their terms and conditions. The final decision will be taken by Insurance Ombudsman.

You have the option to not agree with the settlement provided by the insurance Ombudsmen and more forward with Court as well.

IMPORTANT NOTE :- THIS PROCESS IS SAME FOR LIFE INSURANCE, HEALTH INSURANCE.

Incase of Term Insurance, Cases upto 50 Lakhs and below are accepted by Insurance Ombudsman. Above 50 lakh, district court and later supreme court.

Hope someone might see this in the future during Their tough times.

Here are 2 penalty / Order in the matter of - 2 Life insurance companies and detailed explanation why they were charged 1 Crore each by IRDAI

Highlight - Check how much a famous web aggregator is getting paid and how you shouldn't judge jump on the brand name randomly.

Here are IRDAI Website links for the above cases

https://irdai.gov.in/document-detail?documentId=5336773

https://irdai.gov.in/document-detail?documentId=5659882

The following is from ditto's review page about New India Assurance:

"The ICR data of New India Assurance Health Insurance has remained alarming over the last 3 years. The numbers have surpassed 100, and the data inconsistencies aren’t encouraging either. As a potential policyholder, you cannot trust this insurance company despite its years of experience in the industry."

Now some facts that I found from the IRDAI reports:

• Their health-insurance specific ICR values for the last two available FYs are 124% for 2021-22 and 103% for 2022-23

• (The 124% is probably an exception . Almost every other company was reporting values above 90% that year. I'd guess because of COVID stuff. )
• While 103% doesnt look very good, The "total" ICR for that year, including non-health policies, is only 95.59% . May not be lucrative compared to private cos' numbers but hopefully they are not making a loss that year?

Is it safe to assume a public company running for 100+ years with govt money to back up is not exactly "alarming" or "you cannot trust", as ditto is claiming?

Other positives that I found:

• Unlike what people suggest in this sub, New India's premiums aren't that high compared to HDFC Ergo or ICICI or Bajaj (I've been comparing family floater , 10 to 20L SI plans) .
• Their complaints ratio is much better than HDFC or ICICI ( 4.9 per 10000 claims)

Ditto folks don't list any policies from New India on their quotes page (policybazar does btw). I am starting to doubt their comparisons because they tend to skew things by omission. Like what is the point of all this "helpful, transparent" image they are trying to build? Just like any other agent they seem to cherry pick things that would earn them a commission?

Ask your investing related queries here!

The members of /r/IndiaInvestments are here to answer and educate!

Alternatively, you could join our Discord and seek answers to your queries

If you're looking for reviews on any of these following, follow the links:

• which bank or brokerage to use
• which fund house is more capable and trustworthy
• which investing platform to use,
• which insurance company is reliable

Generally speaking, there is no best stock, or fund, or bank, or brokerage, or investment platform.

Answers are always subjective to your personal needs, but use those threads a starting point for you to look at what other Redditors have to say about a company, product, fund, or service.

You can then ask a more specific question about what product or service to buy, once you are able to frame your personal situation.

NOTE If your question is I got 10k INR, what do I do to get most returns out of it?, or anything similar; there is no single answer to this question. But we will also need A LOT MORE information if we are to provide some sort of answer:

• How old are you?
• Are you employed/making income?
• How much? What are your objectives with this money?
• Do you have any loan, or big expense coming up?
• What is your risk tolerance? (Do you mind risking it at blackjack or do you need to know it's 100% safe?)
• What are you current holdings? (Do you already have exposure to specific funds and sectors? Have you invested in equity before?)
• Any other assets? House paid off? Cars? Partner pushing you to spend more?
• What is your time horizon? Do you need this money next month? Next 20yrs?
• Any big debts?
• Any other relevant financial information about you, that will be useful to give you an informed response.

Beware that these answers are just opinions of fellow Redditors and should only be used as a starting point for your research. This is NOT financial advice, in legal sense of the term.

You should strongly consider consulting a registered fee-only financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Ideally, such advisors should be registered with SEBI, and have a registration number.

Links to previous threads.

Background:

I currently hold shares of a certain company which I need to divest because I will be working on a project for its group company in the coming months. My employer will require me to sell these shares prior to commencement of the project for complying with the independence and insider trading policies.

The questions:

1. What is the process for an off-market transfer of shares to my parent? Can it be done online?

2. What are the fees and documentation I need to be aware of?

I use Groww and the Depository Participant is CDSL, in case that's relevant.

I had heart attack recently and needed to undergo a stent placement due to 100% artery blockage. Never smoked or drank alcohol. 6ft 80kg so normal bmi too.

My mother has high bp. But other than that both my parents dont have any health conditions (they have had full body checkups done recently). I have low hdl cholesterol and had a fistula surgery done 3 years ago (no issue related to this since 3 years).

My parents never considered having a health insurance. But after my heart attack, we are looking to get it. My parents are 53, 51 yrs old.

Which one will be good for us. My parents are very traditional in terms of investment and was being talked into geting star insurance but based on what I read online thats like the worst one. So seeking for advice here.

Both my parents are govt employees. And I will be soon joining in a good mnc as a sde. We are decently stable financially.

Looking for a insurance which won't trouble us in time of need. Or would investing somewhere instead of insurance would be a better option for us?

Since, ETF is sold and bought at the stock market, the market price is determined by the supply and demand for that ETF. However for Niftybees, the NAV (281.5312 as on 4th Oct) and market price (280.70 as  on 4th Oct) are very close to each other. So, i am wondering if there is any co-relation between NAV and market price for an ETF ?

So I use Kuvera to manage my mutual funds which has been working pretty well for me. On the 1st of every month, I manage my investments, i.e. by buying stocks, SGBs or depositing into my PPF account with whatever money remains after SIPs. Somehow, I miscalculated how much money I can use for stocks, and ended up with less than 500 rupees in my bank account! In my Kite account, I tried to withdraw the 1000 rupees I had after buying stocks, but it gave me an error that I cannot withdraw on the day that I purchase stocks. Seems arbitrary, but whatever.

Then, I remembered I had over 25k of Tata Liquid funds purchased via Kuvera just 2 days before slab taxation rule came into force. I heaved a sigh of relief. Just insta-redeem 10k. Except when I tried to do so on Kuvera, it just opened a 30 second timer and did nothing. No success or failure message. This was infuriating since I didn't know if I should try again or if it would be automatically processed after some time. I waited for an hour, then contacted Kuvera customer care. Even they were clueless. They just told me to wait for some time. I then kept trying to withdraw 1k again and again to see if it succeeds. Nothing. I then go to the AMC website. There it showed me that all my transactions had failed. The website itself was total crap as well, many times it simply didn't load. I then try insta-redeem (once again spamming 1k redemptions) in that same website. This time I got failure messages immediately.

I then gave up. Half an hour later to my surprise, three 1k deposits were made into my account. Both Kuvera and the AMC transactions page don't show a single successful transaction, and my total MF holding appears to be the same. That remains to be the case even right now. I guess I should mail both of them showing the screenshots of what happened.

It's a good thing I wasn't in urgent need of this money. But for someone who uses this as an emergency fund, beware that in some cases you may not get the money immediately and you should never put yourself in a position where if you don't get the insta-redeem as advertised, your life would be ruined.

I was a beginner in SIPs and investments. Looking at the XIRR of different mutual funds, I invested in ICICI Pru AMC's sectoral mutual fund SIPs. However, later I came to about index funds and invested in NIFTY 50 Index fund as well.

My question is, have I made a mistake by investing in mostly sectoral mutual funds ?

PS : I invest 40k per month in SIPs. 30k is in sectoral mutual funds, 5k is in NIFTY 50 Index fund, and 5k is in Blue Chip companies fund.

So I wanted to avail home loan so went to SBI, HDFC, BOM.

Out of all, BOM is charging lowest interest rate of 8.4% with no prepayment & pre closure charges.

I wanted to take loan for only 15 years but bank manager insisted I take the loan for 30 years such that EMI is less & I can prepay & close the loan even after 1 days of availing it.

Does this sound too good to be true. Are there any hidden terms & conditions in prepayment preclosure terms

This is Original Content

I'm real excited to share with you all a side project that I've been working on since some time now.

It is BizBrief - https://bizbrief.in

It is a news aggregator that focuses on bringing together all business, economy and market news straight to you. I struggle a lot to visit multiple websites on a weekly basis to get my finance news. And it occured to me that this is a common problem with retail investors in stock market/mutual funds etc. It started out as a web scraping project but I tried creating a platform around it with extra functionality like users signing up, commenting, upvoting, saving articles for future purposes etc.

It is anonymous, you can sign up, upvote, comment on news, save articles etc. But you can just consume news as well without signing up at all. It is totally free!!

I thought this sub would appreciate this. Feedback is always welcome!