Mr Financial Fixit Fixing Finance Lives

Agents, distributors, brokers, or a little upscale, wealth managers or financial advisors. Call them by whatever name, they can unmake and remake your future with financial security.

- Jyotika Sood & Yagnesh Kansara

There are a few things in life that fret you more than a loss you struggle to absorb. That’s precisely what the Banerjees of Delhi encountered. The couple, hovering on their mid-forties, went distraught when they had to sit down and take stock of their finances. For over 15 years of job life, they never bothered much about this, and were largely content with some fixed deposits and insurance policies. A death in the family shuddered them to reality. A quick arithmetic showed that the interest on their savings was just around 4-5 per cent of the principal amount.

With a joint annual income of around ₹50 lakh and gifted with two children, the Banerjees realised that their financial responsibilities were far more than the time they had. The alarm bells rang.

“We went by the banks where we kept our money,” says Abheek Banerjee. “We never realised that financial products had to be unique, mixed up and tailored to your goals. Besides, even money can be put to work.” Their financial portfolio was full of standard products HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank pitched to them.

The portfolio didn’t have a health insurance, their investments for the children’s education and marriage were planned without factoring in inflation, there was no option of early retirement, and vacations were a complete miss.

Both Abheek and Priya (names changed) are HR heads at two global multinationals. Their hectic schedules hardly gave them a chance to think of consulting their investments with an expert or even feel the need to do so. They were at a complete loss the day they realised the inevitable reality ahead of them. They didn’t know how to fix the issue.