Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Insurance


Life is full of twists and turns. There can not be anything certain in life. You can try and plan your life but unexpected things happen and then you find yourself in trouble. So the Insurance policies are a safeguard against the uncertainties of life. Insurance is system by which the losses suffered by a few are spread over many, exposed to similar risks. Insurance is a protection against financial loss arising on the happening of an unexpected event.
Insurance is actually a contract between the insurance company, and the person seeking the insurance cover. Within this contract, the insurer agrees to pay the insurer for financial losses arising out of any unforeseen events or risk in return for a regular payment of premium. Thus, these insurance plans are also called as a Risk Cover Plans, which means to financially compensate for losses that occur uncertainly through accident, illness, theft, natural disaster.
Insurance is also a very good option for investment. Remember that first and foremost, insurance is about risk cover and protection. By buying life insurance, you are actually buying peace of mind. But at the same time Insurance also serves as an excellent tax saving mechanism. The Government of India has offered tax incentives to life insurance products in order to facilitate the flow of funds into productive assets. Insurance policies cover the risk of life as well as other assets and valuables, such as, home, automobiles, jewelry et al. On the basis of the risk they cover, insurance policies can be classified into two categories: Life Insurance and General Insurance. As the term suggests, Life Insurance covers the risk involved in a person's life, while General Insurance provides financial protection against unforeseen events, like accident, flood, earthquake, disease, etc.












Monday, June 6, 2011

Regional Mutual Fund


Regional mutual fund is a mutual fund that confines itself to investments in securities from a specified geographical area, such as Europe or Asia. A regional mutual fund will generally look to own a diversified portfolio of companies based in and operating out of its specified geographical area. The objective is to take advantage of regional growth potential before the national investment community does. They may be some regional funds whose objective is to invest in a specific segment of the region's economy, such as banking, energy etc.
For the investor, the primary benefit of a regional fund is that he/she increases his/her diversification by being exposed to a specific foreign geographical area. For the average investor, these funds are beneficial as most investors don't have enough capital to adequately diversify themselves across many investments in the region. Regional funds select securities that pass geographical criteria. Regional funds differ from the international mutual funds in the sense that international mutual funds have a diversified portfolio with investment spanning all across the world, where as regional funds invest in companies in one specific region or nation. Regional funds carry more risk as compared to international mutual funds because their investments are less diversified geographically.









Wednesday, June 1, 2011

No Load Fund


Normally Mutual funds can be classified into two types - Load mutual funds and No-Load mutual funds. No Load Fund is a mutual fund in which shares are sold without a commission or sales charge. The reason for this is that the shares are distributed directly by the investment company, instead of going through a secondary party. This is the opposite of a load fund, which charges a commission at the time of the fund's purchase, at the time of its sale, or as a "level-load" for as long as the investor holds the fund.
No load funds have several advantages over load funds. Firstly, funds with loads, on average, consistently under perform no-load funds when the load is taken into consideration in performance calculations. Secondly, loads understate the real commission charged because they reduce the total amount being invested. Finally, when a load fund is held over a long time period, the effect of the load, if paid up front, is not diminished because if the money paid for the load had been invested, as in a no-load fund, it would have been compounding over the whole time period.