Money Matters

Mutual Funds

Aman Behl

I am just eight years away from my daughter's marriage. I have been a regular SIP investor for last four years but my overall returns are 4.5 per cent. To get higher returns, I put half of my regular investment towards mid- and small-cap funds. However, these funds have been the worst performers. Should I change my allocation and move all my funds to large cap funds?

Arun Kumar - Head of Research, FundsIndia.com

The mid- and small-cap segment has seen a sharp correction compared to large caps since the start of 2018. Given that you still have eight years and the valuations have started to become reasonable across this segment, we recommend you continue the SIPs as you get to buy more units at lower NAVs. Usually, the recoveries in this segment are very sharp and extremely difficult to time. As and when the recovery happens over the next few years, your returns will improve. Over the last 3-4 years to your goal, you can gradually move out of equities to conservative debt funds.

Sanjeev Saxena

I had bought a term plan about four years ago with Rs 60 lakh cover with a tenure of 25 years when I was 32 years old. Now I wish to increase the plans tenure to 40 years. Is there a way to do that with the old policy or will I have to buy a new policy?

Aalok Bhan - Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance

You may not be able to increase the tenure of your existing policy. Before taking a decision on a new policy, please check your life insurance cover requirement using a human life value calculator. There are new policies available in the market that offer new features like return of premium and critical illness cover, which you may like to consider as well.

Rajesh Saini

I have a corporate health insurance plan of Rs 3 lakh that my company has given. I wish to take a super top-up plan of Rs 10 lakh. However, I have heard that these super top-up plans come with more exclusions than the base plan. If that is indeed the case, should I opt for a super top-up plan at all?

Ashish Mehrotra - MD and CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance

It is always recommended that a person has a comprehensive health insurance plan along with a corporate plan. A super top-up plan will come handy when your hospitalisation claim bill crosses the sum insured under the corporate plan. Further, your base cover and super top-up policy can work along with one another, which means, if you have a mediclaim you can also purchase a super top-up policy to enhance your overall coverage.

The higher your sum insured for super top-up plan, the better it is for you. You can go for sum insured of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. However, it is advisable that you select Rs 15 lakh as sum insured to maximise your overall coverage over and above your base policy. There are no specific exclusions for top-up plans. The exclusions are more or less aligned with the other indemnity-based health insurance products.

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