World Financial Planning Day: Grasping money matters made easy
Renowned PF experts and luminaries from the BFSI space shared their insights to help viewers understand the importance of financial planning.
Financial planning is no more an enigma, especially in a post-pandemic world. It is more of a survival tool now. Falling interest rates on popular savings instruments has forced the middle-class to look at equity-linked instruments for parking their deposits.
Money9, India’s first PF-focused website and part of the TV9 Network, was launched with the motto of Financialising India. Majority of the population have not been able to derive benefits from the massive spike in wealth creation activities driven by the equity markets. Financial products launched by the banks and other stakeholders too have failed to benefit those at the bottom of the pyramid. Financial literacy leads to financial independence and empowers every citizen — this is our core philosophy.
In association with the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), Money9 celebrated the World Financial Planning Day. Renowned PF experts and luminaries from the BFSI space shared their insights to help viewers understand the importance of financial planning.
To mark this momentous occasion, FPSB participated in the BSE Bell Ringing ceremony to ensure its message reverberates across the ecosystem which houses the country’s top corporate houses.
A panel discussion on the account aggregator ecosystem saw the participation of BG Mahesh, co-founder and CEO, Sahamati, Harsh Roongta, Director, ARIA, Pramod Rao, Group General Counsel, ICICI Bank, Vishal Dhawan, Director, ARIA. The session was moderated by Rajesh Krishnamoorthy, Country Head, FPSB Ltd, India Liaison Office.
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Mahesh threw light on the role of account aggregators and how it can play a stirring role in promoting financial awareness.
Role of account aggregators
“The account aggregator system can help lenders get access to authentic and latest data. Around 300 million bank accounts are already in the account aggregator system and many insurance companies are also expected to come onboard before this year ends,” Mahesh informed.
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Rao said the fact that data is available in digital form and gives the customer the chance to give consent to its transfer is a great development.
“Financial planners require data. Bringing it together will be a boon for every stakeholder,” he said.
Dhawan said the ecosystem could encourage more conversations around financial planning.
“Very often for consumers, the ability to distinguish between investment advisors from financial planners tends to be grey. Therefore, the conversations around investments are narrow. In financial planning, the starting point is about income, expenses and liabilities, goals. The ecosystem will make it easy to collect income data. As financial planners, we go through bank statements to check whether the expenses are aligned to their bank statements because there can be a mismatch. At times, we find that consumers are now aware about tenures and rates of interest on loans. This ecosystem could potentially uplift those levels of conversations,” said Dhawan.
Roongta touched upon the succession aspect and noted it is something not many people think about, adding that we also need changes in law.
“One of the reasons clients are not comfortable is because getting information on everything they own is tedious,” said Roongta.
He also said that unclaimed assets currently stand at more than Rs 5 lakh crore.
Bollywood touch
The last session of the day, comprising a stellar panel of Radhika Gupta, MD and CEO, Edelweiss AMC, Swarup Mohanty, CEO, Mirae Asset Investment Managers and Ajit Menon PGIM India Mutual Fund, was conducted in a very unique way with singer Arnab Chakraborty crooning to the tunes of popular Bollywood songs and the panelists interpreting the lyrics with financial terms to make it relatable with our goals.