Personal Financial Planning gives you a framework and a plan of action to move towards relative financial freedom. Apart from allocating funds to meet various objectives, what else can you do to fortify yourself against life’s challenges? Here’s a checklist.
- Know your possible needs such as vehicle purchases, child’s education, family functions, vacations, etc. It prompts you to put aside some money for these requirements.
- Ensure you have a passport, an income tax PAN card, a driving license, and an election identity card, if you are an Indian citizen. These four basic documents help establish your citizenship.
- Obtain an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card or a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, if you are an Indian citizen who has migrated or obtained foreign citizenship.
- Place all investments, bank accounts, insurance policies, etc., in joint names or with nominations registered. Register real estate in joint names too. Joint holding is always stronger than a nomination. A nomination is only a right to receive and hold in trust, until the property is finally settled as per a will or operation of law. A joint holding on the other hand immediately confers a fifty per cent ownership right, in case the only other holder is no more.
- Undertake succession and estate planning. It’s good to have a sound knowledge of what will happen to your assets if you are suddenly not around.
Why undertake succession and estate planning?
In India, there are different laws of succession for different communities.
- Hindus – the Hindu Succession Act
- Muslims – the Mohammedan Succession Act
- Most others – the Indian Succession Act
These laws govern how assets are devolved after the death of the owner, if there is no will.