Individuals

Individuals

Mutual Fund

If you find investing directly in equity shares and debt instruments rather complicated, you can invest in them indirectly through the mutual funds route. When you invest in a mutual fund scheme, you become a part-owner of the investments made in the said scheme.

Mutual funds are broadly classified as equity schemes, hybrid schemes and debt schemes. Equity schemes invest almost the entire corpus in stocks. Hybrid schemes, popularly called balanced schemes, do just that - invest in a mix of stocks and debt instruments. Debt schemes invest only in bonds and cash. Each of these three schemes in turn provides variants to suit the investors taste. For example, under one variant of the equity scheme, you can invest in certain select sectors of the economy. Another variant is designed in such a manner as to provide you tax shelter. One variant under the debt scheme invests in gilts or government securities.

Retail investors in particular welcome mutual fund schemes since they are professionally managed. They function transparently and diversify away the risk to the extent possible. They provide liquidity and tax shelter. They are comprehensively regulated.

Stocks

Stocks are believed to be a core investment vehicle for the long-term investor. Not only have stocks have displayed an outstanding historical performance, they offer many potential advantages for the long term investor. The longer an investor remains invested, the risk and returns become favorable to investor.

Stocks represent ownership capital. Stockholders collectively own the company. They bear the risk and enjoy the benefits the ownership generates. In the medium to long term, stocks, as an asset class, generate perhaps the most attractive returns.

International Funds

The easiest way to invest internationally is by investing in international mutual funds. You can invest in country-specific funds or geography-specific funds. You can invest in funds which invest the world over.

Investing internationally gives you an additional benefit of currency hedging and helps you diversify your risk geographically. With companies scattered all over the world, decision-making is challenging. Thats where we come in. We indicate the countries you can safely invest in and the countries you should distance yourself from.

Bonds

Bonds can be used as a "core" investment to build the foundation of a balanced portfolio. This is because they offer a wide range of maturities, interest payment terms and credit quality ratings selected to fit most portfolio needs

Being long term debt instruments, bonds could be issued by the government, the central bank of the country and corporations. Bonds have acquired a great deal of significance these days. It is widely believed that bonds are bought for their price appreciation potential. As a bond-holder, one can profit by forecasting interest rate changes and / or exploiting relative mispricing amongst bonds

Life Insurance

Life insurance covers the risk of death, critical illness and permanent disability. Insurance products ensure that ones dependents are not left in the lurch in case fate cruelly puts a premature end to ones time on this planet. Additionally, one does not have to burden their near and dear ones with liabilities like mortgage etc. Hence life insurance products ensure that dependents are least affected if fate unfortunately snatches away ones life prematurely.

General Insurance

General Insurance comprises of personal insurance such as Accident and Health Insurance, covering property against fire, burglary etc, and liability insurance which covers such as Motor Third Party Liability Insurance, Workmens Compensation Policy etc offer cover against legal liabilities that may arise under the respective statutes- Motor Vehicles Act, The Workmens Compensation Act etc. There are also other covers such as Errors and Omissions insurance for professionals, credit insurance etc.

Accident and health insurance policies are available for individuals as well as groups. A group could be a group of employees of an organization or holders of credit cards or deposit holders in a bank etc. Normally when a group is covered, insurers offer group discounts. There are general insurance products that are in the nature of package policies offering a combination of the covers mentioned above. For instance, there are package policies available for householders, shop keepers and also for professionals such as doctors, chartered accountants etc. Apart from offering standard covers, insurers also offer customized or tailor-made ones.

Annuities

The annuity route helps you to save by making equal payments into your annuity account at regular intervals. It is an effortless way of saving your money for the future. Whether you plan to retire today or build a corpus for choosing a retirement date in the future. A broad array of plans to suit you objective are available.