Aarati Krishnan
Head - Insurance and Investments
About Aarati
Aarati is a leading voice in the Indian financial services space. She has been tracking and writing about the entire gamut of financial products and regulations for over 25 years now. Aarati was among a select few analysts in the country, tracking and analysing mutual funds, way back in 1994. She was also among the few to voice concerns over US-64 before its collapse. She is currently Editorial Consultant for the Hindu Business Line and was earlier a consulting editor for Value Research Online. For her pioneering work in writing on financial services and the economy, she was awarded the Shriram Sanlam award for excellence in Financial Journalism thrice.
Aarati brings with her a detailed understanding of the world of personal finance from the perspectives of the industry, regulators, government, and, most importantly, the investor. She has always been a strong voice speaking out on behalf of the retail investor and saver and a passionate advocate for greater transparency and customer-friendly innovations from financial product manufacturers. Aarati will lead the insurance and investment products verticals at PrimeInvestor as a consultant.
Aarati is a cost accountant and management graduate.
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Aarati in the media
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Aarati's recent articles
Multiple policies? Covid concerns? Group cover? Term Insurance FAQs!
In our PrimeTime webinar on ‘Choosing the Right Term Insurance’ last Saturday, we received many thought-provoking questions from our subscribers and viewers that we could only partly address, given the paucity of time. Here’s a more detailed FAQ on term insurance based on your feedback during the webinar. Hope you find it useful!
Prime Review: A guaranteed return product worth considering
Advisors love to promote market-linked products, but guaranteed return products remain a big draw for Indian investors. Often the word ‘guarantee’ proves such a big lure that we don’t stop to check if the returns being guaranteed are better than the savings bank interest rate! When seen from a return perspective, there are very few guaranteed products from insurers that are worth considering for long-term investing.
Is it the time to buy gilt funds?
With interest rates on bank deposits, small savings schemes and most categories of debt funds taking a knock, many investors are on the lookout for that one miracle avenue that will give them high returns with capital safety. Gilt mutual funds, which invest only in government bonds, on the face of it, look very appealing today because of their high past returns.
Do you need riders on your term insurance plan?
Apart from allowing you to structure your term insurance plan in different ways through options, life insurers also tempt you with another set of add-ons – riders. Riders allow you to cover additional risks to your income, for an extra premium added to your base term plan.
What options should you choose in your term plan?
Pure term plans from life insurers are, at their core, very simple products. You pay regular premiums to the insurer during your working years. The insurer promises to pay your beneficiaries a lumpsum in the event of your untimely death. This may lead you to believe that buying a term insurance policy is a cakewalk.
How we ranked term insurance plans
Life insurance must surely figure among the most misunderstood financial products in India. Some folks think of their insurance policy as an investment, others as a compulsory portfolio component and yet others as an estate planning vehicle.
