Managing Money is not like Making Movies - Akshaye Khanna gets into Money Trap

Akshaye Khanna invests Rs 50 lakh to get Rs 1 crore in 45 days, loses all

Actor Akshaye Khanna has filed a police complaint against an Andheri couple who allegedly duped him of Rs 50 lakh, claiming they would invest the sum in the commodity market with a promise to double it in 45 days.

"In October 2010, my client Akshaye invested the money in Intech Images, owned by the couple. They lured him with false promises of getting the money doubled in just 45 days. However, for almost three years, they continued to give him excuses instead of returning the money," the actor's lawyer Rajendra Dhuru told TOI on Saturday.

Akshaye filed a complaint with the Malabar Hill police station on Friday through his lawyer, against Satyabrata Chakravarty and his wife Sona, president and director respectively of Intech Images Private Ltd. Dhuru said the actor met the couple at a social gathering in October 2010 at Andheri. "Immediately after 45 days, Akshaye called Chakravarty according to the agreement made. But they gave excuses and asked him to wait for some more days saying they had re-invested the money and they will get an additional Rs 50 lakh excluding the Rs 1 crore under the agreement signed," the complaint stated.

The actor later exchanged a series of emails with Chakravarty's company but every time they gave him new excuses. "We have the agreement for the investment and the money was paid through cheque favouring of Intech Images Private Company," said Dhuru.

Malabar Hill senior inspector Vinay Bagade confirmed a cheating case had been registered against the couple for duping the actor, adding it had been transferred to the Economic Offence Wing (EOW). Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police, EOW, said the couple had been called for questioning on Saturday, but there were no details of any arrests till the time of going to print.

Repeated attempts to contact Chakravarty failed as he didn't answer his mobile or respond to SMSs. Calls on his landline also went unanswered on Saturday.

A commodity trading expert told TOI that it was difficult for money to be doubled in 45 days, as the couple had claimed. "The commodity trading market is very volatile and unless very significant changes occur, no one can predict what the returns will be or the investor can even incur losses. The only fast returns can be expected in the international gold market, but there too one can't get double the investment. In the current scenario, what the actor was offered is highly impossible."

Source : Times of India

Now, get your term cover benefit in installments

With Competition and absence of Distribution costs companies are now innovating on what was a plain vanilla death benefit plan.

Increased affordability has resulted in average sum insured under online term insurance jumping to Rs 70 lakh. With competition and absence of distribution costs bringing down the price of online term insurance to a third of similar policies sold through agents, companies are now innovating on what was a plain vanilla death benefit plan. 

Max Life Insurance has launched a term cover where the beneficiary gets part of the insurance amount in monthly Installments over a period of 10 years. The new online policy provides an option, in addition to the basic plan, where for Rs 10,100 the beneficiary gets Rs 1-crore term cover plus a monthly income of Rs 40,000 for 10 years. There is a third option where for a premium of Rs 11,100 the policy provides an immediate death benefit of Rs 1 crore and a monthly income of Rs 40,000 which rises by 10% every year up to the 10th year. Under the basic plan, a Rs 1-crore term insurance is available for Rs 7,400. 

The advantage of the monthly income option is that it helps avoid income tax, which the beneficiary might end up paying if he were to invest the death benefit amount. Given today's fixed income returns, an investment of Rs 40 lakh would end up attracting a large tax liability . In India, even if one were to buy a pension plan, which pays out monthly income , the earnings are subject to tax. However, the monthly payouts under Max Life's policy are not subject to tax because they form part of the death benefit paid out by the insurance company.

"Our research showed that the average sum insured in online term is as high as Rs 70 lakh. That is a lot of money in hand. If something were to happen to the breadwinner and this sort of money were to come in hand, you are either unprepared to manage the money or there are some people who want to take advantage of the situation," said Anisha Motwani, director and chief marketing officer, Max Life Insurance. She added that the company had considered a product where the entire amount is paid out as monthly income. However, policyholders look for a lumpsum payment to their dependents as this provides a reassurance to them in any eventuality. "We felt that the optimum level is to provide 50% of the policy in the form of monthly payments ," said Motwani.

Source : ET