There’s a famous story that laconically explains importance of solution adequate retirement solutions. Here it goes: A man was sending his parents to a distant old age home and asked his 10 years old son to get a blanket for his grandparents. The kid brought a blanket and tore it into two. This surprised the man and he could not resist and asked his son, “Why did you tear the blanket into two?” With utmost innocence, the child answered, “I will give one half to my grandparents and another half is for you...when you will grow old.”

Think about it…..

Life have two risks - Dying too early and Living too long. You must be wondering how living too long is a risk Retirement is nothing, but a long holiday without pay. We wish to live our retired life with same pride and dignity the way we were living while we were working and any financial obstruction in our living standard gives us emotional set back. We believe expense during retirement tend to increase because our family size increases and moreover we want to spend wherever and whatever we want, without any restriction or constraint regarding insufficiency of funds.

It is of utmost important to plan for retirement well in advance to prevent our self from landing in a situation where we are financially dependent on our kids.

Following aspects are to be taken in consideration while thinking for retirement:

• current living standard in terms of disposable income
• expected life expectancy
• treatment of retirement corpus (for example to be consumed by oneself or to be left as legacy)

Retirement saving can be done through various investment vehicles like:

• Mutual Funds (both Debt & Equity)
• Direct Equity
• Corporate Bonds
• Bank Fixed Deposit
• Post Office Term Deposits
• Employees Provident Fund
• National Pension Scheme
• Unit Linked Insurance Plans
• Structured Products (like Private Equity, Real Estate Investment Trust etc.)

After retirement solution most important aspect is about succession solution which means smooth transition of wealth to next generation. This can be done in two ways namely:

• Probate
• Trust

Probate: The court process by which a Will is proved valid or invalid. The legal process wherein the estate of a decedent is administered. When a person dies, his or her estate must go through probate, which is a process overseen by a probate court.

Trust: A Trust is a relationship whereby both movable and immovable assets are transferred by one party (Settlor) to be held by another party (Trustee) for the benefit of a third party (Beneficiary). Trusts can be revocable or irrevocable.

In a revocable Trust, the assets are bequeathed to the Trust where the Settlor has the liberty to recall his assets at any point of time. It is more commonly used as an alternative to a Will to avoid the hassle of Probate and the possibility of a Will being contested.

In a revocable Trust, the assets of the Trust are deemed to be that of the Settlor, whereas in an irrevocable Trust, assets once bequeathed to the Trust and are considered as the assets of the Trust for the benefit of the beneficiaries and get passed onto the beneficiary. An irrevocable Trust is commonly used for asset protection and ring-fencing of one's assets.

A Trust can hold all types of assets that can be held by an individual, that is from shares, real estate, mutual funds, demat accounts, fixed deposits, bank accounts, bank lockers to even art and antiques. It is also allowed to sell or rent Trust property and pass on the income from the same to the beneficiaries.

A Trust can be for a multiple number of years. It can either be time-framed, that is 'when my child turns 18 or 25 years', or objective-defined, that is 'on the birth of my grandchild or death of my grandmother'

Retirement saving is of utmost importance because everyone wants to continue their same lifestyle even after retirement. Early and adequate thought helps achieve that.