Consumers are “protected” while buying matchboxes but not when they buy a property with their life savings

When we buy something, we look at the printed price, whether it is a chewing
gum or a matchbox or a school textbook. Law demands the printing of maximum retail price (MRP) on every product. Now, consider something that we buy either once or a few times in a lifetime, using our entire...

From an investment perspective, insurance is inefficient due to its very high selling costs. But even in an era of transparency, insurance companies hide this fact from the customers

Life insurance has been sold either on the fear factor or on tax breaks. Mutual
funds have been sold as investment and savings vehicles alone. In both cases, your money is invested -- either by the insurance...

In the rat race to garner size, mutual funds pamper distributors at the expense of investors. Here is how to beat them at their game

Recently, a mutual fund distributor approached me with a pitch to subscribe for a New Fund Offering. It was vaguely labelled and no different from any open-ended growth fund. The distributor did not know much about me, so I decided to play along. I asked him...