Kishan Cold Storage, a partnership firm, used to charge farmers to preserve their foodstuff

Take business insurance against all perils

Business Standard

Professionals should start preparing for tax filing

Documents like TDS certificate from clients and maintenance of books of accounts are necessary

If everything goes as planned, a rebalancing in favour of equity exposure will lead to higher returns

Devangshu Datta: Good returns but conditions apply

Invest like a professional

A few steps you can emulate to select suitable products for your goals

Global bond yield plunges to record low in warning sign

Holding these till maturity a recommended strategy

Tax-free bonds score in secondary market

Kidney claims highest among youngsters

Cigna TTK's ProHealth Accumulate can be a good addition to your health insurance contingency

A policy that covers your OPD expenses

Dividend yield funds: Resilient in falling markets

Their good show makes them an ideal fit for conservative investors' equity portfolios

Dividend yield funds brave falling markets

Is your superannuation fund regulated

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's recent proposal to bring unregulated pension funds under its ambit will largely impact superannuation funds that are offered by employers and managed by their private funds. These funds follow the Income-Tax Act with regards to formation of the trust and investments. However, many feel that despite being governed by the IT Act, there should be more transparency. Superannuation funds can be of two kinds. They can be either self-managed trusts or trusts managed by life insurance companies. If they are insurance managed trusts, then the insurance company gives a consolidated statement to the employer, but may not provide it to individual employees. While in case of self-managed trusts, trustees are supposed to give annual statement to employees. Earlier manufacturing companies used to offer superannuation benefits to their employees. Some multi-national companies too used to offer superannuation benefits. Even today, many of the lead

Is your pension fund regulated?

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Business Standard analyses one family's finances and suggests a way forward

Case study

Realty check: Budget - Rs 1-1.5 crore

Business Standard brings you a snapshot of average current rates and unit sizes in localities that offer property in the price range of Rs 1-1.5 crore

Decoding credit score calculation

A good credit score makes it easier to secure a loan. You might even be able to negotiate for better rates in some loans

Nimesh Shah, managing director & chief executive officer, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, answers your questions

Readers' Corner:  Mutual Fund

Your retirement is closer than it appears

Start saving for it as early as possible and review your portfolio every 5 years

The PFRDA Act has diluted the penal and enforcement provisions in the EPF Act, 1952

Forge a consensus on pension

Prepaid forex cards the best way to carry money abroad

Take limited cash and use credit and debit cards only as a last resort on foreign vacation

Big workforce expansion is expected in manufacturing, mining, construction and services

Robust hiring in the offing?

RIL dips into MF kitty, may retire debt

Besides return and risk, investors also need to weigh the liquidity of the instrument they are putting money in

How liquid is your portfolio?

Gold products are displayed for sale at a shop in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

After years of losses, international funds focused on gold and gold miners are up sharply. In the past three months, DSP BlackRock World Gold Fund has spectacular returns of 64.92 per cent and Kotak World Gold Fund is up 64.89 per cent."Two factors have affected the performance of fund that bet on gold and gold mining companies. Gold prices have rallied in the past few months. Due to this, the stocks of gold miners are back in demand leading to the stellar performance," says Lakshmi Iyer, chief investment officer (Debt) and head products at Kotak Asset Management.When gold prices are low, the mining companies shut down mines as their cost of production is higher than the prevailing price of the metal. When the prices rise and mines become viable, the mines that were shut become operational. And profits for the gold mining companies rise. "Stocks of gold mining companies were battered for many years. With gold price rising, we are witnessing value buying in these company stocks," says I

Limit your exposure to global gold funds

Don't withdraw PF for house, marriage or education

With the government completely rolling back the recent guidelines on the withdrawal of provident fund, employees saving through this instrument would be a relieved lot. Though the option to dig into your retirement saving has been restored, individuals should only withdraw the provident fund in case of emergencies only, according to financial planners. "We would only suggest touching the retirement savings if there's a medical emergency and the person doesn't have any other option but EPF. The person should replenish it as soon as he can," says Malhar Majumder, a certified financial planner.The employee provident fund (EPF) subscribers can withdraw money for purchase or construction or renovation of a house, repayment of home loan, and expenses on education, and medical treatment. These are of course subject to certain conditions. Majumder says that buying a house, education or marriage is not an emergency. A person can buy a smaller house or delay construction or renovation if he does

Withdraw provident fund only for medical emergency

Star Health and Allied Insurance has launched a group insurance policy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has so far covered 241 children from a Chennai-based NGO called Sankalp. The product is ground-breaking because children with autism and other mental diseases are generally declined health insurance cover today.Star's policy will provide an individual sum insured of Rs. 1 lakh to each child. It will offer coverage for in-patient management of medical and surgical complications associated with autism, such as seizures, soft tissue and bony injuries, medical and surgical procedures for muscle spasms and for all infectious diseases. Besides covering conditions related to autism, the policy will also act as a routine mediclaim policy and will cover other general medical and surgical therapies that require hospitalisation.Most health insurance policies have an initial waiting period of 30-90 days. They also don't cover certain conditions for a year or two, and they don

Now, a health cover for autism

Online real estate deals require offline research

You can save a couple of percentage points by buying online but it needs to be backed by a lot of legwork

Page 16 - Investment