Financial

Why splitting FDs across banks doesnt add up

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💡 Why splitting FDs across banks doesn’t add up?
Chasing slightly higher returns by spreading your fixed deposits across multiple banks might seem smart — but it can lead to a logistical and emotional mess. From redundant KYC formalities to poor service, mis-selling, and hassles for your nominees, the hidden costs outweigh the tiny interest gain.

As the PMC Bank case shows, even insured money may not be accessible quickly or with interest.

👉 A better alternative? Hybrid funds that balance safety, returns, and liquidity without the stress.

🔗 Read the full article to understand why:

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Competition in money matters can be damaging

Financial, Personal Finance, Press / By /

Not every race is worth running — in life or in money.
A childhood car ride taught Harsh a lesson he didn’t fully understand until much later in life.
In Harsh’ latest Truth Be Told column for Business Standard, he reflect on how the urge to compete — especially in financial matters — can quietly pull us off course.
This isn’t just about investing. It’s about resisting pressure, staying the course, and focusing on your own destination.

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Rely on rolling returns, not point to point data

Financial, Investments, Personal Finance, Press / By /

“FD can give better returns over a 10 year period than stock markets”. That was the shocking statement that triggered this article in Business Standard more so because is true 5% of the time (95% of the time stock markets beat fixed deposits over 10 years). Clients often struggle to embrace rolling returns, which offer a clearer picture than misleading point-to-point comparisons. Mark Twain’s words on ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’ resonate when cherry-picking exceptional periods like the rare 10 year period where FDs beat the stock market—ignoring that 95% of the time, stocks outperform FDs. Investors reading this please remember this when your advisor is asking you to exit a fund which has given good point to point returns but has poor rolling returns compared to its benchmark and peers.

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Usher in competition between EPF and NPS

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Employees earning Rs. 15,000 pm pay “tax” @42% (the same rate as those earning more than Rs. 5 crores do). Finance minister late Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2015 mentioned “the situation with regard to the dormant EPF accounts and the claim ratios of ESIs is too well known to be repeated here. It has been remarked that both EPF and ESI have hostages, rather than clients. Further, the low paid worker suffers deductions greater than the better paid workers, in percentage terms.” He went on to advocate the solutions listed here. These solutions though promised a decade ago in a budget speech on the floor of the parliament have been stonewalled by the powerful EPFO and ESI establishments. Bureaucrats can justify anything as exemplified by the fictional UK bureaucrat Sir Humphrey in the BBC series “Yes Minister”. Watch how he justifies continuing a hospital with no patients but with 500 administrative staff https://shorturl.at/pdau2 . Don’t let the Sir Humphreys win this battle.

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Perils of keeping surplus money in bank accounts

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Back in the 1970’s the Soviet bureaucrats worked out a clever ploy to deny permission to a US citizen seeking to marry a Soviet citizen. They asked him to provide proof that he was not “already married”. Getting a document certifying a negative fact is impossible. An Indian bank account holder, victim of cyber fraud, faced a somewhat similar predicament when he was required to prove that he had not received any OTP sms or email from the bank. Harsh’s article in the business standard on how the issue was resolved and what lessons can be learnt so that citizens facing similiar issues have an easier time.

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Investing for children: Buy house or opt for MFs?

Financial, Investments, Personal Finance / By /

Meera, a high flying corporate executive, was bent on using the money earned from her ESOPs to buy a second house as an investment which could be passed on to her children later. Her spouse Karan was against it as it would mean postponing their retirement plan. Harsh’s article in Business Standard on how Karan and Harsh managed to convince Meera to invest the money into financial assets instead. “You do not buy a cow today just because you may need milk years later. You make sure you have the money to buy the cow should you require it later” was one of the arguments that helped to convince Meera.

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Simplifying nominations can boost financialisation

Financial, Governments, Investments, Personal Finance, Press / By /

Indian securities market regulator SEBI has recently sought public comments on a consultation paper that seeks to comprehensively revamp the entire process of transferring assets to the nominees on the death of the investor. It seeks to remove hurdles and standardise the process so that the transfer to nominees can happen in a few weeks (the dream is the transfer happening in a few days of applying and God willing even that will happen eventually as the system stabilises). The paper also deals with providing access to the investor themselves in case of their incapacitation (unfortunately many such cases are coming up as longevity of Indians increase due to advances in medical science) . This is a giant step towards making Investments in Indian securities market convenient and easy and will aid in spurring the ongoing process of financialisation of household investment assets.

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Unclaimed assets: Create searchable databases

Financial, Governments, Press / By /

Give a gift worth lakhs to your loved ones this new year without costing a penny to you. Visit iepf.gov.in, click on “Search unpaid/unclaimed amount” under the “Services” tab, and enter their names in the search box and discover unclaimed shares in their name on the #IEPF website. The probability of discovering lost treasures for your loved ones is much higher if they are born before 1970.
IEPF has recently changed its search functionality to display potential unclaimed amounts/shares based on the inputted name without requiring any more information. Unclaimed shares/dividends worth Rs. 52,000 crores are with IEPF. Similarly large amounts (bank deposits – Rs. 35,000 crores), Insurance-Rs. 25,000 crores, Inactive/unclaimed Mutual Funds (Rs. 18,000 crores) , Provident fund/Small saving schemes (amounts unknown) exist throughout the financial sector. The Finance minister has already announced an integrated portal to ease the process of searching and claiming such amounts.

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Creating a balance sheet for every Indian

Financial, Personal Finance, Press / By /

“The Account Aggregator System should enable the easy compilation of a Balance Sheet for every Indian” – was the clarion call provided by Mr. K V Kamath as he went to the heart of the matter in his characteristic style. This was amply borne out by Harsh’s experience in providing financial planning services to his household help Sapna and her family. Such experience can be repeated with millions of Indian families if the potential of the Account Aggregator System(#AAS) is fully unlocked. #AAS has been ably helmed by RBI and is a great example of what inter regulatory coordination (RBI, SEBI, IRDA, PFRDA & GST) can achieve. Despite its undoubted potential a few steps (outlined in the article) by the regulators can unlock the full potential of AAS and enable it to live up to the goal set by Kamath Sir. It will also assist the investment advisory profession to shed it’s elitist tag and strive towards the goal of a financial plan for every Indian.

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Vigilance Awareness Week 2025 (VAW2025)

Vigilance Awareness Week 2025 is being observed from October 27th to November 2nd, 2025, with the theme:

सतर्कता: हमारी साझा जिम्मेदारी (“Vigilance: Our Shared Responsibility”).

All stakeholders are encouraged to participate in the e-pledge initiative by visiting the CVC portal: https://pledge.cvc.nic.in/.