Do you deserve the money you have?

A popular mutual fund has about R35 crore in unclaimed redemptions and unclaimed dividends as per report dated July 2012. A listed blue-chip public limited company has about R70 crore worth of share dividend lying unclaimed as on July 2012. Just one mutual fund and just one listed company and we can see about R100 crore unclaimed.

There are about 40 mutual funds registered in India, over 2,000 listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Then there are over 100 banks having more than 50,000 branches across India. Could we hazard a guess that money lying across all financial institutions might be in excess of say R5 or R10,000 crore? It could be much more. But that's not the point. The point of contention is "Why do people create money?", "For whom is this money being created?"

Why does this happen?

Forgetting our investments: Indeed it's true; we do forget our investments, we are irresponsible, we hide things from the very people for whom we have created assets. Ultimately all this money lands into some investor education and protection fund and in certain instances your assets may ultimately be transferred to the government.

Changing our details: There are some things we should not change. These days the #1 thing we should not change is the mobile number and the email. It is difficult to remember the number of places we have used these items. The other important thing is the bank account. Avoid changing it. Even if you do not want to use one, keep the minimum balance and hold it for a good few years. You never know how and when you might just need it again. There have to be extremely compelling circumstances for changing these fundamental aspects of your financial life.

Dealing with multiple service providers: In your overtly charitable demeanour you entertain many banks, brokers, agents etc and as a result you have your assets all over the place. Just because he is your brother in law or cousin's friend or some other relative is not reason enough to deal and render financial favours.

... contd.

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