TWO VERY DIFFERENT DEMOCRACIES

 

India and the United States of America are both democracies, the former being the largest and the latter the oldest, but they are vastly different from each other. We have a Westminster style Parliamentary system of government while the US has a Presidential system. Our people elect the members of the parliament and they in turn elect the Prime Minister, whereas in the US, the people elect the President and he selects his team of ministers after approval of a select committee of elected representatives. 

 

In India if a candidate like Smt. Indira Gandhi or Sri Narendra Modi is not on the ballot then the contest is between multiple parties or multiple coalition of parties. However, when a larger than life person is on the ballot the politics and the political discourse becomes more presidential and the vote is either for or against that person.

 

Americans still punch holes in their ballot papers to register their choice while we push buttons of the Electronic Voting Machine. Our system is more scientific, more advanced, and less prone to error. Historically the US has suffered electile dysfunction more than once, the Florida counts of George Bush and Al Gore Presidential election being the most noteworthy

 

Many differences

The US Presidential election is not really one election, but 51 separate elections, one for each of the states and the capital district. Each of these elections have their own rules - in some states the election is done entirely by mail and only in some states voters are required to show a photo identity to cast their ballot. India has three times the size of the electorate but all of them have a photo identity card. This makes our elections more organized. Our postal ballots are only for special categories like serving military personnel and diplomats posted overseas.

 

 

Another big difference is that our election is first past the post system. So, if there are multiple parties fighting it out and the most successful has even 33% votes, or in other words, 67% do not vote for him/her, he/she will still be declared the winner. The US system is 'winner takes all' system in which the candidate who gets the most votes in a state gets all the state's delegates in the Electoral College. This is that antiquated body which ultimately decides who becomes the US President. 

 

This concept is not only alien to us but unthinkable. Imagine if BJP wining 41 out of 80 seats in UP and opposition wining 39, all 80 seats of UP going to BJP! How can this be democratic? Our system respects the sanctity of every vote and the will of every electorate. If a tribal leader, not affiliated to any political party, is popular enough to win a parliamentary election, even he can take his rightful place in Indian parliament. One simply has to be an elected representative of majority of the voting constituency.

 

 

Different campaign strategy

This winner takes all process in the US means that the presidential candidates need not campaign in states which are traditionally and solidly behind their party, like New York and California for the Democratic candidate and Texas for the Republican candidate. Not only this, the opposition candidate too feels why waste time, money and energy in these states, they are not going to vote for our party anyway! So both the presidential candidates end up campaigning extensively in what is called 'swing states', those who keep changing their choices from election to election. All the time, money and effort are spent by both parties in wooing these states and these are the states, seven in number, which decide the winner of the presidential election.

 

This neglect of loyal state and avoidance of states loyal to the opposition is unthinkable in Indian politics. Our prime ministerial aspirants campaign in every state and try to reach virtually every constituency, irrespective of their past voting history because even if they can wrestle out 1 or 2 seats from an unlikely state, in the final countdown it is a huge bonus. Propagation of a party's ideology in a traditionally unfavourable state matters because the party may not win any seat but their voting percentage gradually increase with every election and in one election it eventually results in a surprise victory in an unlikely state! 

 

In the just concluded US elections in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, which is a swing state, the two parties spent around $150 million on television advertisement in September and October. However, just across the river in New Jersey, which is a solidly Democratic state with far bigger population, no party bothered to campaign seriously and spent virtually negligible amount. 

 

Back home every state is closely fought irrespective of which party is in power in the state. Our electorate is wise enough to differentiate between issues of the state and issues of the nation and even when elections to the centre and the states are held together, they are known to vote differently depending on the issues.

 

Swing states

Swing states change from time to time. In early 2000s Ohio and Florida were swing states but today they are solidly Republican.  We also regularly see these swings; Gujarat was a Congress state 25 years ago, but now it is a BJP bastion. West Bengal was a communist state but now is governed by TMC. Rajasthan, M.P, H.P and Bihar keep swinging often.

 

In the US Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin were once the industrial heartland of the country manufacturing steel and cars. Globalization has hit them hard and now these factories are closed. So, this is called the Rust Belt and the once prosperous communities are angry and disillusioned. The Indian equivalence of rust belt is West Bengal and Jharkhand. Rich in natural resources, the factories and mines are long gone with similar anger and disillusionment among the masses.

 

Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada are the other four swing states, which comprise the Sun Belt states of the US. They were traditional blue collared Republican but good weather, low taxes and low cost of living have attracted migration from prosperous neighbouring states and these migrants are white collared Democrats and so these states have a potential to swing. A different type of migration occurs in India where people from poorer states with fewer opportunities migrate to prosperous states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Delhi, thus gradually changing their voting pattern. This is healthy migration where the states with job opportunities attract young people who can work there and contribute to both their state's economy and that of the migrant’s home state, when they send money back home. Remittances form a large chunk of the economy of thr poor states to which these migrants originally belong.   

 

However, there is an unhelpful and unhealthy migration too very prevalent both in the US and in India and that is of illegal immigrants. In the US they are usually Hispanic, Asian and African and in India they are Rohingiya Muslims from Myanmar via Bangladesh. The liberal parties encourage this illegal migration as these migrants become their natural vote-bank. This sinister plan of providing legal documents of nationality to illegal immigrants is gradually changing the demography of our states situated along our international borders, and this is a very dangerous trend.

 

Democracies are messy and elections make them messier, but still this remains the best system of governance. Both in the US or in India, elections are a true celebration of democracy. But whereas in the US these celebrations are held once in 2 years, in India we have a State or a National election every few months. This disturbs governance of the country far too frequently and decision making comes to a standstill. This is unhelpful for good governance and makes the governance staccato. The Indian government is trying to amend the constitution and sees if we can hold all state and central government elections together once in 5 years or twice in 5 years. Changes in a democracy occur slowly, but we are hopeful.

BEING AHEAD OF TIME IS BRAVE, BUT NOT EASY

Progress is made by those who challenge the contemporary. They have the courage to contest the prevalent norm and boldly think out of the box. But this act of defiance of what is considered true is not always easy. The life stories of these 5 scientists prove that sometimes it takes a lot of time for people to appreciate your effort, as each of them were rejected in their lifetime, or even shamed for their theories. In the end, however, all 5 of these scientists turned out to be right, and modern science took so much priceless knowledge and inspiration from their scientific research. So, if you and your ideas are rejected time and time again, although you know you’re right, never give up. Let us be inspired by their lives of these great men and learn to persevere no matter what.  

 

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865)

The Father of Disinfection Semmelweis was the first doctor to suggest that infectious diseases can spread when doctors don’t wash their hands or disinfect their tools, years before we learned about the germ theory of disease. Semmelweis was an obstetrician in Vienna, and he noticed that the mortality rate of women post childbirth was much higher in hospital births than in midwife-delivered births. He believed that this was because doctors at the time used to routinely examine corpses and perform autopsies, and then they would carry on assisting births, which, as Semmelweis concluded, must have spread the disease to the women. To counteract this, he made the doctors and nurses wash their hands before assisting childbirth and even started disinfecting tools. This decreased the death rate of post-delivery deaths almost immediately, and Semmelweis published several papers about this phenomenon, but no one believed him. He was ultimately fired from his job in Vienna and continued his practice in Budapest, and there too, the mortality rates among women dropped by 25%.

Semmelweis could not explain why hand-washing was effective – he didn’t know about germs – he just saw that it worked and that patients no longer caught fevers and other diseases. This was the first tragedy. The second tragedy was that although Semmelweis reduced death rates in his own hospital, his attempts to spread the word failed. Many people died because hand-washing was not made a routine part of hospital practice.

The third tragic part of the story took place in 1865. Semmelweis had become clinically depressed when his work was rejected and he started behaving oddly. He was lured by another doctor into an insane asylum in Vienna. Realizing it was a trap, Semmelweis tried to get out, but was held and badly beaten by guards and placed in a straightjacket. He died two weeks later, most likely from injuries he suffered during the beating.

With Semmelweis gone, the fourth tragedy was that his hospital went back to running ‘properly’ again, discarding his ‘crazy’ ideas. Mortality rates increased by a factor of six, but nobody cared.

 

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)

Mendel discovered Genetic Inheritance, a science which has multifaceted use today from confirming parentage to treating cancers. A monk by trait, Gregor Mendel was a born scientist: he was both a talented mathematician and a brilliant biologist. Mendel single handedly founded the science of genetics when, while working in the garden of the monastery, he noticed that some of the sweet pea flowers had a mixed coloring, whereas others only had one color. This made him think that there are some traits, such as the color of the flowers, must be passed on generation to generation, and when these traits are different in the “mother” and the “father” plant, it can yield in a mixed trait. He then carried on interbreeding pea plants with various traits and traced the basic mechanisms of genetic inheritance, which he published in a paper that was completely ignored. A year after he published his work, Mendel became Abbot of his monastery and spent his remaining years managing the monastery and its monks.

The importance of Mendel’s work was only properly appreciated in 1900, 16 years after his death, and 34 years after he first published it. This rediscovery of Mendel’s contribution became the basis of genetics, as we know it today. 

William B. Coley (1862-1936)

William Coley was the Founder of Immunotherapy. At the end of the 19th century, there was no radiation, chemotherapy, or cancer drugs, and the standard procedure for cancerous tumors involved cutting them out tumors or cancerous tissues. William Coley was a bone surgeon who worked at New York Cancer Hospital. He noticed that some patients suffering from bacterial infections, such as streptococcus infections, were more likely to recover from cancer without surgeries than other patients. This made Coley inject several patients with a weakened version of strep and another bacteria, which, in some cases, made the patients cancer shrink dramatically, but in others, patients ended up dying from the infections he administered. This cancer treatment was called  Coley's toxins, and he and a few other doctors who believed Coley’s theory used it to treat cancer. Unfortunately, Coley’s theory was not accepted well in the scientific community and was forgotten for almost half a century.

Only in the 1960’s, many years after his death, the idea of immunotherapy reappeared in medical research, and Coley’s numerous papers played an important role in establishing this field of cancer treatment.

 

Alfred Wegener (1880-1930)

Alfred Wegner was the first to propose the Theory of Continental Drift.  He was a geophysicist and meteorologist, whose life is as tragic, as it was exciting. Wegener studied earth samples from various continents and noticed a strange pattern: the composition of the samples from the Americas was eerily similar to that of Western Europe, and Australian fossils and rocks had an uncanny resemblance to those of Asia and New Zealand. This urged him to suggest in a series of papers that Earth’s continents can move and have moved over millions of years. Once again, Wegener’s theory, too, was rejected by other scientists at the time.

In 1930, he went on an expedition to Greenland and died at the age of 50. Wegener’s theory of continental drift was rejected by most other scientists during his lifetime. It was only in the 1960s that continental drift finally became part of mainstream science.

 

Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543)

Copernicus discovered the Heliocentric Solar System.  During antiquity, scientists established that we live in a heliocentric solar system, meaning that all the planets revolve around the sun. However, this knowledge was lost for hundreds of years, until Copernicus re-established it in 1543 in his book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, which was widely ignored, and people continued believing that the Earth was the center of the universe. 

It also didn’t help that the Catholic Church condemned his book and even banned it for centuries. Still, Copernicus’ study is considered to be one of the most notable astronomical achievements on the Middle ages and Copernicus is known by practically everyone.

 

These stories go to show that persistence and devotion to the truth transcends time, whereas mockery and malevolence don’t, so be courageous and don’t be afraid to speak your truth. Prevalent ideas can have a bias of time, social acceptance, religious belief and most importantly, ignorance. It takes a brave researcher to take a stand against what is considered normal or standard. Ignorant minds have always made fun of a genius, only to repent and grudgingly accept the latter’s superiority.

 

GETTING NOSTALGIC ABOUT RAGGING AND MEDICAL LITERATURE

 

If there is any one thing that radically changes an individual during his training and learning days, then that would be ragging. Young boys and girls come from different parts of the country, different socio-economic strata, and different family backgrounds to live and study together in a professional institution. Till the day of their admission they had only dreamt dreams that their family constraints allowed them to. They were, for the first time, away from the protection of their parents, home and all that was familiar. And then an introduction to a brave new world awaited them!

 

Oh what a grand introduction it was with a traditional ceremony called ragging, a ritual which goes on and on, till you require no more. The new melting pot, which churned and homogenized the differences and diversities among all our batch mates, was a highly scientific and professional shock treatment, which metamorphoses us from adolescence to adulthood. The good boys with pure thoughts (satwik vichar) and discipline (anushashan) were suddenly transformed into a worldly wise and tough guys and girls, ready for all eventualities and equipped for all occasions. All prudish concepts and taboos were stripped and discarded as came out of the melting pot. Ragging not only taught us how to get things done, but hook or by crook, but also exposed us to a wide variety of hooks and crooks and told us about the scope and utilities of each one of them. Sam, dam, dand, bhed, goli, gali and gapp all crept inside the sulci and gyri and became a part of our autonomic nervous system. The two biggest life lessons learnt then was failure was not an option, it was just an attempt gone wrong, and excuses were of no use in life.

Stuffing you up with one Kg of kalakand (a white coloured dry sweet like sandesh) without allowing you to drink a sip of water or forcing you to gulp down two glasses of gehri hari Raja ki thandai (a herbal drink with almonds, cashew, dries betel leaves, poppy seeds, cardamom, pepper, rose petals, saffron and milk prepared by the iconic Raja, which is cream in colour but gets greener with every extra dose of cannabis)are raggings I am ready to subject myself to even today. I wish my seniors take up the call! Dares like tying a bleating lamb to the back row seat in a lecture theatre or, worse still, replying to a beautiful senior girl who is coyly asking ‘Mujhse shadi karoge”(Will you marry me?) This is a question which can have no correct answer, if you say yes, she will slap you and if you say no she will ask Kyon, main sundar nahin hoon (why, am I not beautiful) and again slap you! The only correct answer then is to lie prostate at her feet and do a Tera number salam (No. 13 salute). She will not only lift you up but also give you thirteen rupees laundry charges. In no time all our inhibitions were gone and we became genuine Baby Georgians!

 

It is all too easy to allow the demands of advanced scholarly achievement to make one insular, to isolate one from the remarkable scope and breadth of what goes on within the boundaries of this haloed Medical College in particular and this city of Lucknow in general. This may not be Hogwarts's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but there is magic here and spells in its air that help students to succeed in life! The best spells are not found in classrooms but in the culture and ambience of the Institution. These spells and the education that comes with them helps students from becoming just another brick in the wall. Ragging teaches fresh entrants all these spells and integrates them in the campus life. Education is what is left with you, when you have forgotten everything that was written in books. It is that attitude, and ragging brings out that attitude in an freshman.

 

During our ragging period we were introduced to a sacred scripture called 'Medical literature'. It was recited loudly as a prayer in the hostels, and the challenge was not only to learn it by heart, but to start reciting it from anywhere in the middle at the drop of a hat. Our seniors were excellent teachers, but their job was not at all difficult, because the sacred scripture, despite its voluminous size, was composed in highly imaginative verses, with the most innovative comparisons and the wildest of outlandish ideas. Even Sri Sukumar Roy's nonsense verses or Abol Tabol failed in comparison. It was as if the language's secret sauce was revealed to us, with taste so heady and intoxicating that we are still in its spell.

 

Learning the Medical literature by heart was non-negotiable. It improved our learning abilities and acted like a scientific filter of our intellect. "If you can't remember the Medical literature then how the hell do you think you will be able to remember the complex anatomy of the brain, the ear, and the hand" our seniors would yell!

 

Learning the Medical literature by heart brought a sea change in our personality. Our protective childhood and hesitant adolescence were buried once and for all and we suddenly metamorphosed into adults. The change was more obvious than a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Our vocabulary multiplied manifold, and now, at the slightest provocation, we could verbally blast out even the ugliest opposition with the filthiest tongue. With effortless ease we could lambast any offending target into smithereens without even lifting a finger.

 

The F word, the B word, the C word or their Hindi and Punjabi MC BC counterparts were now like long forgotten nursery rhymes after that crash course of imbibing the Medical literature. Adults don't recite 'Mary had a little lamb', do they? They grow out of it and recite Milton, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelly and Keats. From learning the Medical literature our expressions became more authentic, more innovative and far more imaginative. We were the new Byron, Shelly and Keats, our expression had gone rogue, our imagination deliciously astray, dancing drunk on a table top, almost as sophisticated as a drunken sailor!

 

Ragging taught us that a colourful vocab relieves stress. We came to know for the first time that the medical benefit of profanity as a substitute of Aspirin was both immediate and effective. It can take us to a cooler elite group and can establish the best amongst us as the alpha of that group. This is not the first time I am writing about Cuss words and profanities. Ragging made me a veteran in this field. If you have missed my blog on the F bomb then please click: https://surajitbrainwaves.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-f-bomb-and-such-profanities.html

 

I am of the opinion that cuss words were invented before actual speech, when we were grunting and panting. They are vital to our vocabulary to express a visceral need to vent. It feels so amazingly refreshing after the act of uttering them with proper expression. The same word in different situations, in different contexts and with different volume of delivery and accompanying expression, can mean vastly different things and even a thousand words couldn't take its place. Many people have stubbed their toes only to find deep solace in these words. But my dictionary of these beautiful words changed completely after ragging. Medical literature made them more colourful, and colourful language carries its own dictionary. Though these cuss words usually change with generations and today's cuss becomes tomorrow's common lingo, but Medical literature learned five decades back still sounds like recent advances. In fact, so successful has been its existence that a newer edition was never required! In social life when obscenities become mundane we need higher grade of obscenity to shock, but our Medical literature has stood the test of time and a lot of water has flown down  the Gomti since its sacred origin.

 

Academicians who research the history and etymology of cuss words will never understand, because just reciting these words may be misinterpreted as reciting a prayer from a religious text. These words are nothing without the feelings and the expressions that naturally accompany them. Similarly, reciting the Medical literature with the correct feeling, attitude and expression took us to a state of Trans! 

 

One only has to give in to the perverse desire to let go orally to experience the joy after a tired and frustrating day's work. You can thus air your worst mood with minimum verbiage. If you think that loudly saying f*** or s*** brings such emotional, physical and spiritual release that it clears all the cobwebs in your brain, imaging a drug which is thousand times more potent - that is our Medical literature. With its frank inappropriateness and lack of corners it is both an ageless balm and benediction. As we prepare to celebrate the golden jubilee of our Georgian '75 batch next year I am getting nostalgic, remembering the transcendental power of our Medical literature. 

 

Unadulterated academics often gets monotonous, and if you are far away from your loved ones in a lonely hostel room, very alarmingly frightening! Boredom is a big bully, when you step up to it and take it by its beards, you will be surprised to see it coming out in your hands, as it was stuck there only to scare away timid adventurers! Ragging converted us from timid adventurers to brave soldiers.

 

It is a pity that ragging is confused with mindless violence and so has been rightly banned today, but it has robbed this generation of a very vital maturity podium, after climbing which, one gets integrated with the ethos of an institution. One can then mingle seamlessly into the pool of seniors and foster most wonderful relationships for life!

WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND INHERITANCE PLANNING

 

When you die, what are you going to leave behind........an inheritance or a mess?

Wealth management is all about leaving behind an inheritance to whom we desire and for the purpose we desire. Wealth management has 3 parts

1. Accumulation or Wealth enhancement 

2. Conservation or Wealth preservation 

3. Distribution or Wealth transfer

 

All of us are still pursuing Wealth enhancement, without even bothering about conservation, and still not planning for distribution of our Wealth. This is being postponed indefinitely for far too long, and if we don't act today, we will surely leave behind a mess.

 

Protection planning

Reliability of income (ROI)for you and your spouse till you two are in this world is vital. This can be threatened by many ways

(i) Inflation and increased cost of living

(ii) A stock market crash

(iii) Unexpected medical expenses 

(iv) A predator or a disgruntled family member 

The last point should not be underestimated. So long as you are alive you will surely protect both your wealth and your family because the predators will lie low, but when you are not around they will raise their ugly head and drag your children to court. So, Wealth protection is a must.

 

Wealth transfer 

Inter-generational Wealth transfer requires Estate planning. This is not about real estate, anything which you own or will own after your death is your estate. We have 4 types of assets

1. Physical - land, house, jewellery 

2. Financial - shares, debentures,  mutual funds, fixed deposits, insurance 

3. Digital - Mobile phone, Credit and Debit cards, Email ID, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook account.

4. Intangible - reputation,  goodwill, practice

 

We need to make a complete list of all 4 types of assets most meticulously. In today’s day and age the usernames and passwords of your digital payment system, your emails and your social media accounts are your assets and you need to keep them safely in a file to be transferred to your desired beneficiary.  It is also important to know the present value of your future earnings and whether they will depreciate with age. Every human life has a value H.L.V or Human Life Value. With age this value rarely appreciates if you are not invested well. Your Chartered Accountant will give you a fair idea whether your savings will last your lifetime. 

 

Estate Planning

The term "estate" refers to the total net worth of an individual family leader and other members, including their assets, properties, investments, bank accounts, and personal belongings in India and globally. It encompasses all assets like immovable, movable, intellectual, business, artifacts, pets, etc.

Estate Planning involves a comprehensive approach to manage this estate during a person's lifetime and determining how it should be distributed after their death to optimize tax benefits as well as smooth transfers. It goes beyond simply creating a Will and encompasses various legal and financial strategies to protect and transfer wealth according to the individual's wishes.

This is the systematic distribution of your estate to the next generation. This requires a motive. What you like most is not your wealth but the people you love the most. So, often it is essential that your loved ones know about your entire estate. Do you have any assets about which you have not told anyone? Then how will your loved ones know about it after you have left the world?

For whom is your wealth? Who is the person you love most, and your first responsibility - your spouse. The next are your children. But in your wealth transfer plan there are many options 

1. A sequence has to be established perhaps - first to my spouse, and after her, to my children. By doing this you have ensured that in his/her lifetime your spouse cannot be forced to pass on your estate to your children. This ensures her financial independence as well as physical safety. 

2. Do all your children get equal share of your estate. This depends on both you and your religion. In Muslims, the married daughters do not have a right to their parent's estate, whereas in Hindus, they do.

You are not a Muslim and you intend to distribute your estate amongst your children, how do you do it?

1. Do you do it equally?

2. Do you give more to the one who is less successful, and perhaps needs it more? This sounds logical........but does it? Are you not encouraging inefficiency and discouraging diligence, dedication and efficiency?

3. Or do you want to give a bigger share to the child with whom you spend your senior days? This may be your way of compensating for the expenses he/she has to incur towards your health and nutrition.

Incidentally, if you are a Muslim and you want your daughters to get a share of your estate, then what can you do? If you marriage is not registered and it was performed as a Nikah by Muslim customs then you can get your marriage registered under 'Special Marriage Act', on the same date of your marriage and to the same spouse. Now your wealth can be transferred to your daughters in your will.

 

There are some cardinal rules in estate planning.

1. Have complete control on your property/ Estate when you are alive, and possibly even after your death. This ensures your physical and financial security. Love everyone but never love them more than yourself. If you are not secure and safe, you cannot ensure the security and safety of any loved ones.

2. What wealth you leave behind signifies those extra years you need not have toiled tirelessly. So, enjoy life and spend your wealth on yourself and your loved ones. Pamper them, and don’t forget to pamper yourself.

3. Your estate planning should be such that you can take care of yourself and your loved ones even when you are incapacitated, and your loved ones when you are no more.

4. Your estate planning should be such that you can give what you want, to whom you want, the way you want and when you want both before and after your death.

5. You have to ensure that the next generation gets your wealth peacefully and there are no misunderstandings or animosity among your children.

Components of Estate Planning

Will: A Will is a legal document that outlines how an individual's assets and properties should be distributed after their death. It allows individuals to name specific beneficiaries, appoint an executor to carry out their wishes, and make provisions for minor children or dependents.

Family Trusts: Family Trusts are legal structures that hold and manage assets on behalf of beneficiaries by way of single or multiple trusts. They offer benefits such as asset protection, tax planning, and controlled distribution of wealth. Trusts can be revocable or irrevocable, and individuals can specify conditions for disbursements.

Power of attorney: A power of attorney is a legal document that grants authority to another person (the agent or attorney-in-fact) to make financial or legal decisions on behalf of the individual creating the document. It can be general or limited in scope, depending on the specific needs and preferences of the individual.

Succession planning: Succession planning is particularly relevant for business owners. It involves creating a plan for the smooth transfer of ownership and management of the business to the next generation or a chosen successor. This ensures the continuity of the business and minimizes disruptions during the transition.

 

Some Family concerns

If you are a man and you die without making a will then your estate will not automatically be inherited by your wife, as you might imagine. Actually, the estate will then be equally distributer between your spouse, your living children, children of your deceased children and adopted children. Is this agreeable to you? Or do you want your wife to be the first inheritor and only on her death should it go to the next generation. Then, that needs a will expressing your desires in so many words.

The legal heirs of a woman are her husband, her living children, and the children of her deceased child but not his/her spouse. In both the cases, all children, both male and female share equal right to inheritance among Hindus, but Muslims girls are deprived of this right.

 

Do we have to notarize a will?

It is good if we do, because it becomes difficult to legally challenge a notarized will. However,  a will need not be stamped, typed or registered.  By doing so one shows his/her intention. In case you make changes in the will after it is notarized, then the changed will should ideally be notarized too, otherwise it may be challenged in court. A perfect will is a misnomer. Make the first one, and change it as many times you wish afterwards. With every revision you will be clearing ambiguity that might have crept in and persisted in your previous document. There are many ways in which you can avoid confusion 

 

Some salient points

(i) Specify the landed property by their registration number - house, flat, clinic, hospital, factory, shops, and specify who is inheriting what.

(ii) Divide a house into different floors for different children 

(iii) Have jewellery in different lockers for different children and give them their locker numbers

(iv) Ensure that different children inherit different bank accounts, FDs and Debentures, all designated by numbers

(v) Ensure who inherits your stocks held in demat accounts. Have different Demat accounts for different children

(vi) Tabulate all your mutual funds and Ensure that the inheritors know which folio numbers are they inheriting

(vii) Agricultural tools like tractors and their accessories, farm animals, orchards, ponds all will require a mention, along with the names of the children who are inheriting them.

(viii) Your motor vehicles should be mentioned by Registration numbers and their individual inheritance decided.

(ix) Your e mail id, your Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram accounts, your Website, your blog space are all your assets, just like your credit and debit cards and your bank accounts and UPI or Pay tm  accounts. All these need to be mentioned in your will along with who will inherit them.

(x) Lastly, your pet is your responsibility, where does your pet go after your demise should also be mentioned. 

 

The more elaborate and clear the contents of a will are, the less are the chances of dispute for inheritance. Do not forget to make provision for minor children. It is better to transfer all your offshore assets but if that is not possible then make different wills country wise. 

 

The status of nominee 

If you are under the impression that all your bank accounts, demat accounts, FDs, Mutual funds, and Debentures already have nominees, as the government has made mandatory, and now you need not bother, and they will automatically be passed on to your designated nominee, nothing can be farther from truth. A nominee is just a caretaker and not an owner. He/she will not be until you mention in your will that after your death the nominee becomes the owner. 

 

The truth about "Either of Survivor"

You have been ticking this box all your life while filling forms of bank accounts,  Demat accounts, Mutual funds and Debentures, and you think that it means that when you are not around your spouse will automatically become the owner of the financial instrument. Again you are mistaken. Either of survivor is the mode of operation and not the mode of ownership. So, after your death only 50% of the proceeds of the instrument will go to your spouse and the remaining 50% will be equally distributed among all your legal heirs.

 

Importance of a Professional Wealth manager or Estate planner

Engaging a professional estate planner is crucial. They can provide valuable guidance and expertise in navigating the complex legal and financial aspects of estate planning. A professional estate planner can assist with drafting legal documents, evaluating tax implications, identifying suitable strategies, and ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations.

Their role involves understanding the individual's goals and objectives, analyzing their financial situation, and recommending appropriate estate planning tools and techniques. By leveraging their knowledge and experience, estate planners help individuals create a customized estate plan that aligns with their specific needs and preferences. Making a will does not mean that you are going to die. This should not be treated as a taboo. Your estate should not be a source of conflict and spoil the relationship between your children.

 

The process of estate planning

This involves:

1.      Assessing assets and liabilities. This involves taking stock of all the properties, business ownership / investments, bank accounts, and personal belongings, intellectual properties, Email and Social media accounts that make up the individual's estate.

2.      Identifying beneficiaries and their needs. This includes immediate family members, children, spouses, and other dependents. Individuals may also choose to include charitable organizations or causes as beneficiaries in their estate plan.  if there are minor children, provisions for their care, education, and guardianship should be addressed. 

3.      Setting goals and objectives. It ensures that the plan aligns with the individual's values, priorities, and long-term aspirations.

4.      Choosing appropriate Estate Planning tools. This may involve the creation of a Will, establishing trusts, designating nominees on insurance policies and retirement accounts, and granting powers of attorney.

5.      Drafting and executing legal documents. This includes detailing the distribution of assets, specifying beneficiaries, appointing executors or trustees, and including any additional provisions or conditions. The legal documents should be clear, unambiguous, and properly executed to ensure their validity and enforceability.

6.      Periodic reviews and updates. Changes in their personal circumstances, such as marriage, divorce, birth of children, or significant changes in financial status. Simultaneously, individuals should also evaluate their liabilities, such as outstanding debts, mortgages, etc. Assessing both assets and liabilities provides a clear picture of the individual's current net worth and helps determine how these should be managed and distributed.

 

When should we make our estate planning?

Yesterday was the best day. We are already late, and are incredibly lucky to be alive, and get this opportunity.  Ideally one should make a will at the age of 18, when one inherits the first property, otherwise your loved ones will suffer. Estate planning is not for the classes, it is for the masses. We must take some time out of wealth enhancement and wealth preservation and spend it on planning our wealth transfer so that we can smoothly transfer our estate to the next generation. It is vital that we leave behind an inheritances and not a mess.

To know more about Estate Planning and Wealth transfer from a professional please click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bkh3ZtsLxc

Mr. Deepak Jain, the wealth management professional in this video, was invited to one of our batch-meets in Agra and this blog is the result of the knowledge gained from his hour long talk.