The coronavirus pandemic has affected the health of our economy significantly. This has created anxiety among investors. Many of them are not sure about their income due to delays in salary or financial constraints. In fact, some of them are not even sure about their job security. We spoke to two MFDs to understand how they are helping their clients deal with these difficult times.
MFD Brajesh Singh of RPL Financial Services, Gwalior
I have compiled a list of clients who are likely to be affected the most during this lockdown. The list mainly includes clients who earn their livelihood from small-scale businesses, tourism, hospitality and aviation sectors as these are among the worst hit.
Over the last couple of months, I have increased interaction with such clients to understand their financial situation. On a case-to-case basis, I am advising clients to avail the benefits of moratorium on loan EMIs by six months. Missing an EMI payment would mean risking punitive action by banks, which in turn can adversely affect their credit score.
I am also suggesting to my clients to opt for monthly premium paying option to renew/buy insurance. Recently, IRDAI has asked insurance companies to offer this facility to policyholders.
MFD Vaibhav Rane, Mumbai
I have been helping clients with cash flow management lessons. Over the last few days, I have conducted a few sessions on prudent money management skills to educate clients about the importance of budgeting, keeping track on expenses and so on.
Further, my focus on maintaining asset allocation has also helped clients who are in need of money due to financial constraints. My clients have an emergency corpus in liquid funds, which has helped them cope up with today’s challenging times. From the beginning, I have followed the three bucket strategy - emergency funds, medium term goals and long term goals. I recommend all my clients to segregate their investment amount in these three buckets. This comes in handy especially during tough times like this.
