Many non-term/non-ULIP life insurance policies are notorious for offering expensive plans with high embedded commissions. Most of these plans generate sub-inflationary returns even over very long time horizons, significantly destroying…

Mr. Harsh Roongta, in his inciteful blog Evaluate funds on rolling returns over long term, makes the case for being extremely careful before being taken in by “magic bullet” ideas…

As markets continue their incessant rise, it is becoming increasingly difficult to prove our abilities as investment advisers. Everything an investor touches rises and the stock markets are in effect…

In a previous blog of 31-Aug-22 we had highlighted the significant advantages a prudent investor could have in taking a position in debt mutual funds over fixed deposits/bonds of a…

With Siddharth Kapoor – CBSE Class XI student, Delhi Public School, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Delhi. In a previous blog titled Sovereign Gold Bonds : 28-Feb-21, we have highlighted the key…

SEBI on 03-Feb-23 released a consultation paper on direct plans for schemes of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) and trail model for distribution commission in AIFs. The objective of the consultation…

We have recently introduced the Aroha App in both Playstore for Android devices and Appstore for Apple devices. With the Aroha App, clients can view their holdings on the go…

In support of the cyber security awareness campaign notice of 19-May-22 from the regulator, a fellow Registered Investment Adviser was kind enough to share below a list of useful links…

Debt investors in India predominantly invest in sovereign bonds, bank and corporate fixed deposits. Citing safety, investors flock towards these fixed income instruments. No doubt, sovereign, high rated bank, NBFC…

In the previous month we had blogged on the fallacy of using a simple arithmetic sum as a method to calculate the total cost of a term life policy. We…

with Sahil Chhabria – A level graduate, Vidyashilp Academy, Bangalore Term life insurance policy: Term life insurance provides life insurance coverage for a specified term. Term life insurance lasts for…

Our composite portfolio is the sum total of all individual client portfolio values and our composite highwater mark is the sum total of all individual client high water marks. We…

It is said that a retiring individual would require a corpus of about 30X one’s annual expense. This useful rule of thumb, however presents an innocuous picture of a complex…

Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money caught our attention on two fronts. The first in that it echoed in so many ways how we at Aroha think about investing…

In a circular dated 13-Dec-21, SEBI has published an Investor Charter that Investment Advisers have to put up on their websites and/or share with their clients. In light of this…

We have always wondered upon the effect time horizon has on decision making. There is a qualitative difference between the split second decision made on where to return a shot…

Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman is a co-author in a recent book – “Noise – A Flaw in Human Judgement” . In chapter after chapter of the book, deeply disturbing facts…

Indian markets are at an all time high. Short term interest rates are at a low. Current and prospective inflation is arguably high. While the expected return for equity is…

We are fans of products which have low intermediary charges and low taxes. The drag of intermediary charges and taxes on investments are real and have a significant deleterious impact…

We have repeatedly written about the need to play defensively when investing. Playing defensively means to first avoid costly mistakes rather than trying to hit winners. Amongst the first steps…

Our composite portfolio is the sum total of all individual client portfolio values and our composite high water mark is the sum total of all individual client high water marks.…

The Government of India introduced the Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) scheme In the Union Budget of 2015-16. To date about 45 SGBs have been issued. Let us for example consider…

This blog is a continuation of last month’s blog. In last month’s blog we discussed at length the obfuscation around the word “Total” in Total Expense Ratio (TER) in fund…

As SEBI Registered Investment Advisers, a corner-stone of our investment philosophy has been to choose low cost index funds. Our rationale has been that low cost index funds are sufficient…

I recently attended a webinar on the Financialisation of India’s Savings with Monika Halan moderated by Marcellus Investment Managers. Drawing from the evolution of Bollywood, at the webinar Ms Halan…

This is an unusual blog – in that it comes in-between month ends. We write this blog since SEBI has issued a circular dated 23-Sep-2020 with wide ramifications for Investment…

Savers in the USA have the option of saving in tax deferred accounts. Tax deferred accounts provide the benefit of deferring all income and gain in the account from tax…

On 03-Jul-20, SEBI amended the Investment Adviser Regulations. A few progressive amendments included were (i) disallowing individual Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) from distribution (ii) reserving the name Investment Adviser only…

The book – Winning The Losers Game by Charles D Ellis is a fascinating read. It is clearly THE BOOK we would recommend for individual investors – we are almost…

In our blog of Report Card : 31-Mar-20 we presented our performance on a consolidated basis. Performance was reported on a Time Weighted Return (TWRR) basis as against an Internal…

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis the world finds itself in, and the commensurate rout that the markets have witnessed, we report on our annual performance for one more year. Whilst each…

In our blog Emerging Value : 28-Feb-19, we had made out the case for deep value emerging in the wider markets. We had also implied in the same blog that…

It is pretty standard for “investment experts” to say that the long term “average” expected return from equity investments in India would be around 12%. Investors, I would dare say…

Investing is part art and part science and above all is about decision making under uncertainty. In a recent video, I came across some nuggets of wisdom from an unlikely…

A client recently purchased a house and had taken a home loan. As usual the client had to also undertake insurance for his home loan. While chosing the appropriate insurance…

The financial year 2018-19 has just ended. The year gone by has witnessed stellar growth in the headline BSE SENSEX. The wider market however has lagged these indices. We present…

In our blog of 31-Oct-17, we referred to the fact that our equity portfolios (we call them risky portfolios) benchmarked against either the BSE SENSEX or the BSE Small Cap…

In the 31-Oct-18 portfolio report to clients, we had mentioned that Aroha will be introducing a fixed fee (from the next financial year ie 2019-20) in addition to the usual…

The time value of money is an Investment 1.0 topic. It is a fundamental attribute that capital today is more valuable than the same notional amount of capital anytime into…

Aroha’s Investment Adviser License is coming up for renewal and in this regard, we recently submitted our application for renewal. Anguished with the unfair situation Corporate Fee Only Registered Investment…

A few days ago a good friend of mine forwarded me the product brochure of a Structured Product. The product was marketed with the following justification : Back testing of…

The Union Government in its wisdom, introduced a Long Term Capital Gain (LTCG) tax on equity shares in its budget for the financial year 2018-19. My attempt in this blog…

Simple interest is one in which the interest is paid out at regular intervals. In compound interest, the interest is not paid out at regular intervals, but instead added to…

It is the time of the year to take stock of how things have panned out in the financial year gone by. Clients have a choice of three benchmarks to…

SEBI has invited comments to its recently published “Consultation Paper on Amendments to SEBI (Investment Adviser) Regulations 2013”. It is not clear whether the contents of this consultation paper released…

A number of clients have written in asking for our comments on the “Bail In” clause mentioned in clause 52 of the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill (2017) tabled…

In the current financial year, risky portfolios managed by us and benchmarked to market indices such as the BSE SENSEX price index or the BSE Small Cap Price Index have…

The CFA Society of India had recently conducted a Value Investing Summit in Delhi. Eager to listen to the best minds in the industry, I enrolled for the conference in…

In mid July, I had the good fortune of being a part of a panel discussion on robo-advisory in India. I was the only representative of a bricks and mortar…

The subject of this month’s blog is a shameless copy of a chapter from the book Complications by Dr. Atul Gawande. The book provides a fascinating insight into the error…

The month of April is busy for Aroha Capital. It is the month of the year when client invoices are raised and clients cut their cheques to us. With growth…

While every client is aware of the return generated in her portfolio for the financial year just ended, I would like to take some time to present on how Aroha…

When I receive enquiries on the viability of Portfolio Managed Services (PMS), amongst the many pointers that I put out to prospective investors is to draw attention to the concept…

In the many reviews I have received of our new web-site, one question that kept repeating itself was – what does the term dumb-bell strategy mean?. As real estate on…

Dear clients, my apologies for not presenting my monthly blog for 30-Nov-16. We have been swamped with work including the revamping of our website, change in office location and the…

Festive greetings to all my dear clients. Wishing those of you who celebrate Diwali, a joyous and prosperous year ahead and for the others I hope you are thoroughly enjoying…

SEBI in a circular dated March 18, 2016 among other things had directed that the Consolidated Account Statement being sent by Mutual Funds to investors every six months, must in…

In his book the Aspirational Investor, Ashvin B. Chhabra provides insightful analysis on investing. The book is a great read and provides some thought-provoking ideas about making smarter investment choices…

Since time immemorial the medical sciences have been hounded by the concept of iatrogenesis. ‘Iatros’ meaning ‘healer’ and ‘genesis’ meaning ‘from’ in Greek – literally translating into ‘from the healer‘…

A hilarious video hosted by John Oliver in his talk show Last Week Tonight was brought to my attention this month. In this video, Mr. Oliver delivers a supremely funny…

In the 11th May 2016, edition of the Mint newspaper, as a part of an investor awareness initiative – swatantra, I answered a few questions centered on how a salaried…

With the raging controversy surrounding the restrictions the Government of India proposed in the recent budget around provident fund withdrawals, specifically with the insistence of taking up single premium annuities…

In the recently concluded 6th India Investment Conference conducted by the Indian Association of Investment Professionals, I was fortunate to sit through a talk by Professor John Kay, an eminently…

An examination of various client portfolios at the end of December 2015 has shown that high-risk portfolios of our clients have significantly outperformed their benchmarks; however low-risk portfolios, while not…

Unit Linked Investment Plan (ULIP) products have been marketed by insurance companies with great success. The tax benefits under section 80C to premium paid for ULIPs has been a significant…

Financial Planning article in August issue of The Financial Kaleidoscope from NSDL (scroll down to page 3)

The Ministry of Finance (Government of India) has recently released a report on recommending measures to curb mis-selling and rationalizing distribution incentives in financial products in India. At the outset,…

Amidst the market mayhem we have witnessed in the past fortnight, market pundits have voiced a variety of opinions, including the likelihood of persistent volatility, the relative safe haven India…

Amongst my rather small group of clients and at dinner table conversations with family and friends I keep getting asked on what is going to happen next to the world…

Whether we employ peons in our companies or we employ house helps at home, we all (at least you, my clients) are employers at some level or another. These employees,…

In a recent discussion among friends, we briefly debated the idea of the lack of training in probabilistic thinking in our schools. We discussed how of all disciplines we learn…

I was pondering over the topic for this month’s blog when my wife in the background was reminding me that our children’s end of term report cards were ready and…

My dear client – you would have by now received an email from finametrica, asking you to fill up a questionnaire for assessing your risk profile. The idea is to…

My recent visit to the networkFP national conference & exposition has set me thinking. At the outset, I was deeply impressed with the overall conference and was delighted that my…

Screaming newspaper headlines, voluble TV anchors and incessant email or sms “tips” are agog with seductive investment opportunities in “growth companies”. I thought that I should share my perspective on…

Many clients I have spoken to have Unit Linked Policies (ULIP) in their portfolio of investments. Clients are either unaware of Term Life policies or believe that they are more…

SEBI circular no. CIR/IMD/DF/21/2012 dated 21-Sep-2012, mandates mutual funds to provide a separate plan for direct investments, i.e., Investments not routed through a distributor. Such a separate plan shall have…

Rising markets distort portfolio allocations in two ways. The first is by the sheer improvement in valuations, equity portfolios rise and hence take a significantly larger portion of the asset…

Over the last 6 months India has seen a steady and definite improvement in its macro fundamentals. With a simple majority government coming to power, levels of uncertainity are significantly…