August 17, 2012
ORGANIZE – either make your clients do it or offer it as a service!
Sadique Neelgund
We came across this nicely compiled list/article in a leading newspaper and thought of sharing it with you. Most of the clients are bad with organizing financial documents and securing them. This is either because they find it boring or don’t understand these documents or simply by human nature, they procrastinate.
Do you think this can be converted into an opportunity by financial planners by offering it as a separate service or by including this as one of the features of data gathering? Or just to build a great amount of trust and have control over client’s financial decision.
So as you read this article do tinkle your brain to check if you can monetize on this. Let us know what your thoughts are about building and offering it as a stand-alone service or part of financial planning service.
Published On: Thursday, July 12th, 2012 / Source: Economic Times
10 Documents To Secure Before You Die
Keep these essential papers in place and inform at least one family member so that your heirs don't have to run from pillar to post to inherit what is rightfully theirs.
1) Primary documents
These include your birth certificate, marriage certificate, PAN card, passport, election ID card and the Aadhaar card. Will be needed when transferring assets to your heirs.
2) Insurance details
The purpose of life insurance will be defeated if your family is in the dark. Make a list of all the policies, mentioning the name of insurers, policy numbers, insured sums and the tenures.
3) Pension documents
If you have an NPS account, mention the account number and nomination details. Give the pension account number with your employer.
4) Property papers
All property-related documents should be in one place. If the property is mortgaged, keep photocopies. Mention the loan account number and the latest outstanding amount. If property is insured, mention policy coverage.
5) Bank account details
Make a list of various bank accounts, giving the name of the bank, the account number, holding pattern and the nomination details.
6) Bank locker details
Mention the name of bank, locker number, ownership pattern and whereabouts of the key. Maintain an inventory of items kept in the locker and update every time you operate it.
7) Demat account details
Give the name of depository partner, demat account number and nomination details. If possible, update the details of the securities in the demat account.
8) Other investments
Give details of the PPF account and folio numbers of other post office investments. Make a list of mutual fund investments, mentioning folio numbers, ownership pattern and nomination details.
9) Loans and Receivables
If you have taken or given private loans to relatives or friends, mention the amount and the date by when these are payable/receivable.
10) Online 10 passwords
Though these are to be kept secret, keep a list for emergency reference. Mention the website, the online ID and the password.
Keep this in mind
- This information is to be kept secret and accessed only if the main breadwinner of the family has either died or is in a medical emergency.
- Make sure to update the information regularly. How often you do this depends on your convenience and the changes in investments.
- The information listed above is very basic you may want to add more details of other assets along the same lines.
- You may want to make an online version of this information as well, but make sure it is on a secure site.
Store your documents online
Worried that your documents are not secure? Digitising them could solve the problem. Many portals now offer to store digital versions of your documents, which can be accessed by anyone from anywhere, saving you the cost of buying and printing reams of paper. You can make changes to the files offline and this can be synched automatically when you log on to the Net.
You can use services like Google Docs (docs.google.com), DropBox (dropbox.com) and Windows Live SkyDrive (explore.live.com/skydrive). The latter lets you store up to 25 GB of data for free, while DropBox provides a free account of 2 GB, which can be upgraded to 50 GB for $9.99 (Rs 560) a month. Kleeto (kleeto.in) is an Indian company, which allows you to store 15 physical documents for a basic subscription charge of Rs 200 a year. The company collects the files from you and uploads the scanned versions that you can access. Whenever you need the original documents, they can send them to you within two to three days.
You can store your medical history on Yostechnologies.com and MyHealthRecords. in, which let you upload scanned paperwork. This lets you access the information any time and avoids wastage of money on duplicate tests if you misplace a report.
There are also apps that help organise your paperwork and make good use of offers, such as Warrantify. This app allows you to scan your receipts and warranties, and store them on the cloud. You can add information about the model, price and warranty validity. The app will keep track of the warranty period and notify you when the expiry date approaches.
Making a will online
If you are tech-savvy, you can get a will made online. A few firms, such as Warmond Trustees & Executors and Vakilno1.com, offer this service. To make a will online, you need to register with the company and key in your personal and financial information. Once the details are uploaded, the company drafts a will and sends it to you within seven days. Besides making the will, these companies help with the registration and act as executors. The cost of this convenience: Rs 10,000. However, you need to have a digital signature for signing an online will. The two witnesses must also have digital signatures.
You need to be organized! Your ignorance can ruin your family. Your assets may not work for your family due to your ignorance, though your assets are in your strong box.
Right. But is being organized only important considering the situation when you are not alive. I feel its equally important during the lifetime.
Of course in any case you need to consider. I have witnessed few cases while accidents took places. Both the parents died on the spot, only child survived. Widow doesn't know where husband kept all other documents with LIC documents. For whom you are creating an Estate? Worthless if it doesn't work!
Thanks Sadique – shared this with my clients 🙂
Got this feedback from one of the clients
"Good one.
While I had compiled most of the data mentioned in the article, additions/alterations, made in the past one year had not been updated. Your mail prompted me to do the same today. I have now kept the data in hard copy as well as soft copy, with the knowledge of my wife, in case of any emergency.
Please keep sharing such quality info, from time to time."
Its great to hear messages like this from clients. Most often even giving a tool/ template to clients which will help them cross-check if they are on track is also of great value. Thanks for sharing Hemant with Network FP.
Thanks , shared with the client .
Harish maybe you make a checklist out of this and share it back with clients on which they can simply mark and see how many things are in place.
We tried offering this kind of a service. But it became quite tedious and dropped it. Also, it will work only for those who can reach the docs to our office – in Navi Mumbai. That restricts the number of clients for us, in any case.
But this kind of service is actually quite useful and it will be a major service to clients. Those operating with clients in their vicinity can do this easily.
I can understand this Suresh. Thanks for sharing your experience. Try outsourcing this kind of service to https://www.findoccafe.in/ . They do exactly this and want to specialize in this area. It has been started by 2 CFP Certificants in India.
Else actually we will have a do a lot of handholding to clients even for simple things like this. Payoff is in long term.
Thanks Sadique.
ALREADY CIRCULATED IT TO MY CLIENTS SADIQUE AND HAVE A POSITIVE RESPONSE
THANKS FOR SHARING
SUDHIR ANAND
Thanks great Sudhir. Try and include this to some extent in Data gathering process. Sowly you can help clients organize instead of doing it at one shot
Thank you very much, it is very useful not only from client view but also, what are the documents necessary for us also, and how best we can serve client by providing these information.
True… it can put at a checklist in our data gathering forms.
This is realy an opportunity most of the clients may need this type of services. Besides above documents there are many other documents which are needed to be inclueded in the list for soft copy like ATM CARDS, CREDIT CARDS, MEDICLAIM POLICY AND THEIR CONTACT DETAILS PINS OF ATM, CREDIT CARDS. Chetan Doshi
Thanks for the additional list Chetan.
One of the most cumbersome things for an individual is to organize and update the personal documents. This has been my experience with most clients. Atleast 7 out of 10 clients were not having the papers well kept. And yes, most of them would go for this, if offered as service.
Unmesh… that is true. We also need to keep in mind that apart from documents we can help clients organize their financial accounts using money managers like perfios, intuit etc. try it.
Gaurav mashruwala by mail –
"there is vast opportunity to monetize on this….. and it can be done with help from technology…."
organising documents is something i always do for my clients , specially the policies and mutual fund statements which they always need help on cuz they are always confusing.
something more needs to be added to the organising list – year round, is the papers required at the time of filing your returns. if you have them ready in a folder it will easy to compile and then file your returns or handover to your CA to file returns.. these primarily include form 16 , TDS certificates ( FD's) , premium receipts , PPF deposit slips ( 80c and 80d deductions), dividend intimations when dividends are directly credited to savings a/c's. etc
Thanks for sharing Rima. May I know if you are charging anything for this kind of work or its a complimentary value added service. The extended list is good.
Thanks for sharing Yateesh and great to hear that you are already offering such service. May I know how much do you charge for this service. This info will be of help to other financial planners.
Very difficult to do it manually on excel for a large client base. It can be easily done thru' technology , and that require considerable investment. Better to outsourced to someone who is already doing efiiciently at a resonably cost.
Govind… check https://www.findoccafe.in/ . They do this using technology. I am not sure if they will do it for other planners.