Sunday, November 22, 2015

Should you review your insurance after home purchase?

Dilshad Billimoria Financial plans and the suggested course of action are based on the facts pertaining to you. When a financial advisor hands over a financial plan to you and suggests buying an insurance cover, the value of that insurance cover is based on factors such as your current income, expenses, goals, assets, liabilities and commitments. But circumstances change over time. New loans, increased salary, higher children education costs, higher expenses, are all variable in nature and therefore, evaluating one's insurance- is important. Let us understand this with an example. When Manish was 18 years old, his parents had purchased an insurance plan for him for Rs 10,00,000, more as a tax saving mechanism. He probably was not even aware of it or the reason for this cover. Now Manish is 30 years old, getting married, and planning to purchase a new home for self and his wife. His wife is a home maker. 

It is prudent to buy an insurance that at least covers the home mortgage amount. Since Manish has just started his career, the accumulated savings for down payment may not be more than 15% of the value of the property, and hence he would need to take a loan for the remaining 85%. Assuming the cost of the house is Rs 80,00,000, the loan amount taken would be Rs 68,00,000(@85% of value of house) Since Manish is the sole income earner for now, he should take a pure term insurance cover plan for the remaining Rs 58,00,000, after considering the existing insurance cover of Rs 10,00,000. This is done to ensure that in case of an unfortunate eventuality of his death, his wife is not left with a home loan burden and no income to pay that loan. She would not be faced with the financial trauma of selling the home to repay loan to the bank. The proceeds from the insurance cover would be used to repay the mortgage to the bank and she would continue to stay in the home. Again, in his absence how would she continue to maintain the same lifestyle and manage the household expenses? She is a home maker and has no source of income to fund the living expenses. 

Therefore, while Manish is re- evaluating the life cover needed at the time of purchasing the new home to cover his mortgage value, he should also consider protecting his family to maintain the same standard of living, should something happen to him to ensure cash flow of the household is not affected. He must therefore, consider a pure term insurance plan that would pay a lump sum to his wife, should anything happen to him, so that she can deposit the amount in the bank and fund the living expenses year on year till her life. For that, the present value of income that is used for the family discounted by inflation for the remaining tenure will determine the life insurance needed by the life assured. Let us say Manish’s gross total income is Rs 5,00,000 per annum. His personal expenses are Rs 1,00,000. His personal income tax payable is Rs 23690. Premium paid by him for his personal life insurance policy is Rs 20,000. Amount available for his family is Rs 3,56,310. Lets round this to Rs 3,57,000 per annum. This is the amount his family would need year on year in his absence to maintain the same lifestyle until retirement. The human life value for Manish is calculating the present value of all future incomes that he would contribute to his family for the next 30 years (60-30), which is Rs 40,19,028 assuming a discount or inflation rate of 8% per annum. This amount does not include the assumed increase in income that Manish would get through his career. Therefore, if Manish dies at age 31 years, his family will receive the above amount that will sustain their lifestyle needs in his absence for their remaining life. If Mr and Mrs Manish are planning to have children, the insurance cover would increase with added dependents and responsibilities of education costs. Another important cover one must buy is personal accident insurance cover to protect oneself from accidental dismemberment.

 This means loss of limbs or a part of your body that would not allow you to carry on work with the same level of income. With reduced income, how would one service the mortgage payments? Therefore, there are policies that pay a part of the mortgage to the bank, in case of partial/ total dismemberment. Homeowners need to purchase home insurance to protect their homes and personal property. Those who rent, need insurance to protect their furniture and other personal property. Everyone needs protection against liability for accidents that injure other people or damage their property. The higher the coverage, the better, so that you are insulated or insured when a disaster strikes.

Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/insurance/should-you-review-your-insurance-after-home-purchase-_4160221.html?utm_source=ref_article

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Use surplus funds to repay home loan

All these costs will be revised based on inflation.

Where are they today?

Cash flow: The gross annual inflow from various sources is Rs 20.29 lakh against an outflow of Rs. 10.38 lakh. The outflow includes routine household expenses, taxes, EMI on home loan, insurance premium and regular investments in EPF. EMI consumes about 6% of annual inflow.

Net worth: The market value of all assets owned by the couple is worth Rs. 1.56 crore. Out of this, Rs 1.09 Crore is for personal consumption in the form of house, jewellery and car. They have an outstanding mortgage of Rs 2.20 lakh.

Contingency fund: Against the mandatory monthly expenses of Rs 53,944, the balance in savings bank, bank FD, liquid funds and cash together amounts to Rs 26 lakh, which is equivalent to 48 months' reserve.

Health & life insurance: Life insurance cover for Rahul is Rs 8 lakh and that of Pallavi is Rs 10 lakh. This is mainly by way of investment-oriented policies. Rahul's employer has provided health cover in form of floater plan to entire family worth Rs 7 lakh.

Savings & investment:

Invested assets comprise equity mutual funds worth Rs 1.27 lakh, direct equity shares worth Rs 55,630, fixed deposits worth Rs 2 lakh, Rs 1.12 lakh balance in employee provident fund and life insurance worth Rs 18 lakh. Balance in savings bank account is Rs 25 lakh and bank FD is Rs 1 lakh.

Fiscal analysis

Family is saving a substantial part of the income. A huge surplus is lying in savings bank account but this is temporary. Borrowing is well within their limits. Both health and life cover needs enhancement.

The way ahead

Contingency fund: They should keep about Rs 1.6 lakh for contingencies. Out of this, Rs 25,000 in form of cash at home is recommended considering there are elderly parents at home. Rest of the amount can be parked in a savings bank account linked to an FD.

Any balance over and above the contingency fund should be utilized to pay back outstanding home loan. After paying back home loan, surplus funds available should be deployed according to suggestions given below.

Health & life cover: The couple should enhance health cover to Rs 5 lakh each for Rahul and Pallavi and Rs 3 lakh for their daughter. If possible, they should also obtain a health cover for parents. Rahul's live insurance should be enhanced to Rs 1.5 crore and Pallavi's Rs 65 lakh, both in the form of term plans.

Planning for financial goals

Home buying: Purchasing a bigger house is possible. First, the surplus funds in the savings bank account after repaying the home loan should be invested in a mutual fund scheme having about 75% in equity and rest in debt. Second, the couple should start SIP of Rs 15,000 in a similar mutual fund scheme. This is suggested as they want to purchase bigger house seven years later. At the time of purchase, they can liquidate the existing home and fund the shortfall with a home loan.

Daughter's education & marriage: They should invest Rs 25,000 every month in a large-cap equity fund, international equity fund and gold fund and increase the allocation by 10% every year. The corpus thus created should be utilized to fund education and marriage-related expenses.

Retirement planning: They should continue contributing to EPF and PPF. An SIP in a mid/small-cap equity fund should be initiated.

Travel & Car: The couple should save systematically every year, after providing for the necessities. Whenever funds are available, they can go on a vacation and buy a luxury car.

Planner's eye

There is no doubt the family will achieve all their goals. There are three strong reasons for it: Since the couple's lifestyle is simple; they save a substantial portion of income; it is a double-income family; and they are living with parents. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Use-surplus-funds-to-repay-home-loan/articleshow/46560956.cms