Any individual

• He/She doesn't have to be earning (we have some young individuals as clients who invest their savings from birthday presents).
• He/She doesn't need big earnings. Our focus is Individual not 'HNI'. We have clients who have just started working to clients who are retired.

Simple, just send a mail to info@immpl.com and we will send you a checklist with a schedule of our services and charges and we can get started. International Money Matters is a financial advisory business, which helps individuals define their financial objectives, works out a financial plan to meet these objectives, and then executes and manages this plan.
About Us Updated statements on Insurance (Unit Linked), Mutual Fund and Equity portfolios are sent on a monthly basis. However, these can be also be provided anytime on request. When you become a International Money Matters client, we would review the investments that you already have and advise whether to hold or sell specific schemes. Thereafter, we would monitor and update you on these along with your new investments. At International Money Matters, we look at various factors while selecting schemes for a particular portfolio such as:

• Your personal goals - If your goals require an aggressive portfolio, the schemes we select will reflect this.
• Your personal preferences - You may not want to invest in say Tobacco companies or because of the company you work for, they may be a conflict in investing in competitor companies and hence we will keep away from funds which are invested in such companies.
• Your risk appetite - Your willingness to invest in more volatile or aggressive schemes.
• Diversification - The portfolio needs to be well diversified without heavy exposure to any sector or market cap, unless that is doing well at that particular time. Care will have to be taken to reduce such exposure when this does not hold true.
• Scheme Attributes - Objectives of the schemes; sectors and companies it plans to invest in, track record over markets ups and downs.
• Fund Manager - His past track record, views and philosophy
• Fund House - Philosophy, credibility and track record.

They are a pool of savings collected from a number of small investors, sharing a common financial goal. The money thus collected is invested by experienced professionals called fund managers, according to the pre-decided objectives in diverse types of securities like Government sponsored Debentures and Bonds, shares of public and private sector companies, bank guaranteed instruments. On the basis of the objective, mutual funds can be divided into Growth, Income and Balanced Funds. Growth or Equity Schemes aim at capital appreciation over the medium to long term period. Typically these funds would invest a majority of their corpus in shares or equity of companies.

Income or Debt Schemes aim at providing a steady and regular income and hence would invest in fixed interest securities issued by the Government, corporate bonds and debentures and money market instruments.

Balanced or Hybrid Funds, invest in a combination of Equity and Debt Instruments in varying proportions. These are mostly funds with about 60% invested in Equity and remaining 40% in Debt. It is one of the most suitable investment options available to the common man because it provides a number of advantages such as:

• Portfolio diversification - Alone if an individual were to buy shares of different companies so that he can reduce his risk, he will need to invest more as compared to a Mutual Fund.
• Professional management - Mutual funds are managed by experienced and qualified personnel who undertake extensive research of various companies, the market and the economy among various other things before investing in companies. As an individual investor, one would lack both the expertise and more often the time to research and invest.
• Convenient Administration
• Low Costs - The economies of scale of buying and selling shares in such large numbers result in lowers costs for mutual funds.
• Liquidity - Depending on the type of fund, redemption takes between 1-3 days.
• Transparency - Mutual Funds are required to publish and send to investors the accounts and various other information under the SEBI guidelines.
• Flexibility.
• Affordability - Investments can start as low as Rs.2500 and even lower at Rs.500 for SIPs.

A mutual fund is a channel through which investments are made in various instruments - debt & equity; and hence they will be subject to the same risk as these instruments. Equity mutual funds therefore will be more risky as compared to Debt mutual funds. Mutual Funds that can be entered into and exited from at any point of time are open-ended. Close ended funds are those under which you have to necessarily stay invested for a specified period of time commonly called lock-in period. Equity Linked Savings Schemes or Tax saving schemes or funds as they are also called are Equity Mutual Funds which have a lock-in period of 3 years and investments in which are eligible for tax deduction u/s 80C. For an individual, investing in Mutual Funds is an easy and convenient process. An application form for the scheme to be invested is required to be filled with details such as Address and Bank details and submitted along with a cheque favouring this scheme for the amount to be invested. If this amount exceeds Rs.50,000 a copy of the PAN card (or Form 60 along with Address Proof) needs to be submitted as well. Redemption needs to be marked on a transaction form giving the amount to be redeemed or the no. of units that are to be redeemed. Redemption will normally take between 1-3 working days from the day this transaction form is submitted to the Fund House. The number of days for redemption depends on the type of scheme one is redeeming. NAV is the total asset value (net of expenses) per unit of the fund and is calculated at the end of every business day. Net asset value on a particular date reflects the realisable value that the investor will get for each unit that he his holding if the scheme is liquidated on that date How should one select a mutual fund? So many schemes, so many options? A Switch is a transfer of units in a particular scheme of a Fund House to another scheme of the same fund house. Repurchase is a sale of units in a scheme back to the fund house at the prevailing NAV. Asset Management Companies incur various costs in sales and distribution of the mutual fund schemes which they can pass onto the individual investor in form of loads. Some funds charge Entry Load, which is a charge paid at the time of buying units of the scheme. Likewise, Exit Loads are charges that are levied at the time of redeeming units from the scheme. No, mutual funds only accept cheques or demand drafts. No, original signatures are required on the application forms. All investments, redemptions or switches made for Rs.50,000 and above have to be accompanied by a signed PAN Card copy of the applicant. Yes, the application and cheque need not be in the name of the same person. As a International Money Matters client you would receive monthly statements of your investments with us. The AMC will send you statement once a year at every event like additional investment, redemption, switch, and dividend declared etc. There isn't a right or wrong option. The choice of Dividend or growth depends on a number of factors such as:

• Profit Booking : If you select Dividend Payout ?this would be a way of booking your profits.
• Loads at re-entry : At the same time, after receiving dividends, you want to invest these again in the same or different schemes, there will be entry loads.
• Cash flow Needs : Dividends received could be a timely cash inflow.
• Taxation : At the time of redeeming in case of Growth funds, more capital gains will be payable.
• Your Nature : whether you would like to get some profits from time to time or receive them much later.

The NAV does not reflect the performance of a mutual fund scheme. Don't Invest Based On which fund has the lowest. Remember that when you are investing at Rs.10 in NFO's, this is actually a fund with no track record. You are saving on entry loads, but sacrificing on performance. A lower NAV does not mean there is more scope of increase in NAV. Take an investment of Rs.10,000 in 2 funds, one with a track record of 3 years presently at an NAV of Rs.50 i.e. 250 units, and the other New Fund offering (NFO) at an NAV of Rs.10. i.e. 1000 units. Assuming both funds have invested in the same scrips in the same ratios leading to an increase of 20%.

The NAV of your first investment is now Rs.60 and you current value would be 60x250=Rs.12,000. Your second investment is at an NAV of Rs.12 and the current value is 1000x12-Rs.12,000. So does the NAV of a fund make a difference , absolutely not. You may have received tips that invest in this fund; it gives a lot of dividends. But have you thought why you should invest Rs.100 if you know Rs. 20 is coming back as dividends soon. You might as well invest Rs.80. When funds are giving dividends, it is coming from your funds that are invested with them, it is not something over and above that. A fund manager is very important because he is the captain of the ship and it is his views, opinions and thinking which will steer the investments made by the fund. So the track record and background of the fund manager is an important input while selecting the scheme. At the same time, the fund house/AMC to which the specific scheme belongs to is also important, as if the fund manager leaves tomorrow; the performance of the scheme should not get affected negatively. To invest in shares, one has to first open a demat account with a depository participant. The depository participants hold shares in electronic form for their clients and transfer these securities between accounts. To apply for IPO?s i.e. primary market, a demat account is sufficient. To trade (i.e., buy and sell shares) in the secondary market, one has to open a trading account in addition to the demat account. Trading account and demat account opening forms can be obtained from any of the brokerage houses. Charges have to be paid to open these accounts. Once the account is activated (normally takes a week), trading can commence. There are two avenues through which investments can be made in shares ? primary and secondary markets. In the primary market, this company offers shares of a company directly to the public for the purpose of raising capital (Initial Public Offering or IPO). The secondary market is an equity trading venue in which already existing/ pre-issued securities are traded among investors. Dematerialisation or Demat is conversion of a share certificate from its present physical form to electronic form for the same number of holdings. To explain in simple words, a demat account is like a bank account. Banks hold cash on behalf of their clients and transfer funds between accounts. Similarly, a Depository participant holds shares in electronic form for their clients and transfers these securities between accounts. Demat enables paperless trading whereby, share transactions and transfers are processed electronically without involving any share certificate or transfer deed. Dematerialisation is mandatory for trading shares through the Stock Exchanges now. Dividend is a portion of the company's profit that is paid to its shareholders. These payments are directly credited to the shareholder's account or issued in the form of cheques. The amount of dividend is decided by the Board of Directors and is usually paid quarterly or annually. Dividend is declared as a percentage of the face value of the share and therefore, the amount received by the shareholders will depend on the number of shares held by them. An initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of a company's common shares to public investors. IPOs are a good source of funds for companies and are done with the objective of raising money for specific operations. Typically, a company will hire an investment banker to underwrite the offering and a corporate lawyer to assist in the drafting of the prospectus. Investors are invited to subscribe to these IPOs and allotments are done on a pro-rata basis. There are two types of IPO issues; one where the company and the Lead Merchant Banker fix a price at which the shares will be offered to the public, the Fixed Pricing Method. And the other called Book Building, where the company and the Lead Manager (LM) stipulate a floor price or a price band and leave it to market forces to determine the final price. During the period for which the IPO is open, bids are collected from investors at various prices, which are above or equal to the floor price (the lower price band). The offer price is determined after the bid closing date. Market capitalisation, often abbreviated to market cap, is a measurement of corporate size that is calculated by the current stock price times the number of outstanding shares (i.e., number of common shares multiplied by the current price of those shares). The size and growth of a firm's market capitalisation is often one of the critical measurements of a public company's success or failure. There are no strong definitions for categorisation of companies into large, mid and small caps. Roughly, stocks with market capitalisation of between Rs 700 crore and Rs 5000 crore would be considered mid-cap, those above large-cap and those below small-cap. Derivatives are products whose value is derived from the value of one or more basic variables, called underlying. The underlying asset can be equity, index, foreign exchange (forex), commodity or any other asset. For example, wheat farmers may wish to sell their harvest on a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction is an example of a derivative. A hedge is an investment that is taken out specifically to reduce or cancel out the risk in another investment. Hedging is a strategy designed to minimise exposure to an unwanted business risk. Hedging reduces the risk of adverse price movements in an asset. Normally, a hedge consists of taking an offsetting position in a related security. An example of a hedge would be if you owned a stock, then sold a futures contract stating that you will sell your stock at a set price, therefore avoiding market fluctuations. Investors use this strategy when they are unsure of what the market will do. A perfect hedge reduces your risk to nothing (except for the cost of the hedge). A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. The asset can be a financial instrument such as shares, debentures, commodities, properties etc. An Option is a contract which gives the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell the underlying at a stated date and at a stated price. While a buyer of an option pays the premium and buys the right to exercise his option, the writer (seller) of an option is the one who receives the option premium and therefore, is obliged to sell/buy the asset if the buyer exercises it on him.
Options are of two types - Call and Put options:

Call gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset at a given price on or before a given future date.
Put gives the seller the right, but not the obligation, to sell a given quantity of underlying asset at a given price on or before a given future date.

An American option can be exercised anytime between the date of purchase and the expiration date. European options may only be redeemed at the expiration date. Most exchange-traded stock options are American. BSE is an abbreviation of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Of the 22 stock exchanges in India, Bombay Stock Exchange is the largest with over 6,000 stocks listed. The BSE accounts for over two thirds of the total trading volume in the country. Established in 1875, the exchange is also the oldest in Asia. It was the first one to be recognised by the Government of India under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and it is the only one that had the privilege of getting permanent recognition ab-initio. The market capitalization of the BSE is Rs.5 trillion. The BSE `Sensex' is a widely used market index for the BSE.

The Exchange provides an efficient and transparent market for trading in equity, debt instruments and derivatives. It aims to promote, develop and maintain a well-regulated market for dealing in securities and to safeguard the interest of members and the investing public having dealings on the Exchange. NSE stands for National Stock Exchange. It was incorporated in November 1992 as a company and got its recognition as a stock exchange in April 1993. S&P CNX NIFTY is the index of NSE. It is composed of 50 of the largest and most actively traded stocks on the NSE. The exchange was set up to encourage stock exchange reform through system modernization and competition. Penny stocks are speculative stocks characterised by their low price per share. They are traded over the counter (OTC). With penny stocks, there is much greater price volatility, and thus greater and quicker gains and losses in asset values. It is precisely this volatility that draws investors. Penny stocks are highly speculative. They are riskier than average investments, but have tremendous reward potential. The upside of penny stocks is the ability to turn a small investment into a fortune. The downside is the risk, volatility of the shares, and the lack of corporate transparency. A Term Plan is a PURE RISK policy, which means this plan provides money to the policy holder?s family only if the policyholder dies during the term. It is actual insurance where the family is protected against the economic loss occurring due to the death of the policyholder. Under this plan, only the administration expenses and mortality charges are recovered from the individual. Hence the cost of such policy, i.e. premium to be paid is very low. There is no savings element; hence no returns are received on maturity. Private Insurance Companies in India have come into being only since 2001. Hence, while considering an insurance offering from a private insurance company, one needs to look at the credibility, track record in the field that they have been and their commitment before deciding. Private Insurance is a growing industry India and there will be new players, consolidation, mergers etc, so one needs to be careful in selecting the private insurance provider.

1. Insurance Premium paid is eligible for deduction from gross income as follows:
• Under Sec.80C of the Income Tax Act.
  Premiums paid upto maximum of Rs.1,00,000 subject to maximum of 20% of Capital sum Assured under Traditional & Unit linked Plans.
• Under Sec.80CCC of the Income Tax Act.
  Premiums paid upto maximum of Rs. 1,00,000 under pension plans. However, u/s.80 CCE, the aggregate amount of deduction under section 80C, section 80CCC, and section 80CCD shall not, in any case exceed one lakh rupees.
• Under Sec.80DD of the Income Tax Act.
  Premiums paid under plans exclusively for physically handicapped persons upto Rs.50,000/-In case of severe disability as certified & issued by the medical authority upto Rs. 75,000/-
2. Exemption of Life Insurance Proceeds.
• Under Sec.10(10D) of the Income Tax Act.
  Maturity benefits are tax free. However in cases where premium exceeds 20% of capital sum assured within a year, benefits paid in excess of premiums paid will be taxable.
Death benefits are tax-free

There isn?t any policy under which you pay premiums only for the first 3 years. Under Unit Linked Insurance, there is a facility called premium holiday, under which after having paid premiums at least for the first three years, the policyholder can stop paying premiums but the policy will continue. The accumulated fund value will continue to be re-invested for the policyholder minus annual charges of mortality, administration and fund management. The policyholder can resume paying premiums from a later date. It is best to be honest while applying for an insurance policy with respect to medical history and other details as well. Since at a later date, when the family of the policyholder puts in a death claim on his demise and the insurance company finds some necessary facts have been concealed at the time of application, then it can reject the claim which can cause tremendous burden for the family. This is a rider in an insurance policy, under which the policyholder pays an additional premium in order to get a pre-decided sum assured, in case of his inability to work resulting in a loss or reduction of pay due to conditions like Heart surgery, cancer, renal failure etc.