NJ WILL WRITING SERVICES (NJ WWS): AN INTRODUCTION

Mr. Kulbhushan Nandwani, AVP, NJ Group

Mr. Kulbhushan Nandwani, face of the NJIB, has a very rich experience in financial advisory and distribution of financial products of over 15 years. In past, he has worked in various capacities with NJ India Invest Pvt. Ltd. as Head - Investment Products & Zonal Sales Head. He has been also very actively engaged in setting Insurance Business and Estate Planning services at NJ Group.

In this interview, Kulbhushan talks about the NJ WWS which was recently launched in select cities for Partners.

1 Congratulations on the successful launch of NJ WWS. Can you briefly introduce this new service to our NJ Partners?

Thanks for the wishes.

Before coming to NJ Will Writing Services (WWS), let me share with you the Indian scenario on succession planning and how Estate planning will fill the gap that prevails in India. We researched and studied on number of people dying without writing a Will. Though we do not get concrete data on same but some newspaper articles suggests that there are more than 95% people who die without writing a Will. Then we have looked at the number of cases pending in Indian courts as distribution of assets in absence of a Will, may lead to property disputes. We found that there are lacs of cases related to property disputes. Thus to reduce such property disputes, one must write down a proper will. A customer works for several years to buy assets and he wish to distribute them to his loved ones as per his wishes but after his death, if he has not done the estate planning, law will decide the beneficiaries and not his wishes.

NJ WWS is a software based IT solution which will enable the customers of our Partners to consolidate all the assets and liabilities and then distribute / bequeath the property as per their wishes. A human being is bundle of wishes, which dies along with the human being. If you wants your wishes to be alive, a will is a very good solution. Presently, we have launched the NJ WWS for Partners of select cities only, namely Surat, Mumbai & Delhi.

2 Globally, estate planning is considered as an important part of financial planning but it is something yet to take off in India. What is your opinion on this?

Financial planning includes three broad categories that every financial planner should look in to (i) Wealth Creation (ii) Wealth Protection and (iii) Wealth Transfer.

Globally financial planners are catering all three needs of the customers but in India estate planning is a very new concept. Financial literacy, I think, is the key to estate planning. We at NJ, strive to provide complete financial planning platform of the customers by empowering our Partners and by providing solutions that will help fulfill GAPs in financial planning of the customers. We are already fulfilling Wealth creation and Wealth protection needs of the customers through products offering such as, MF, Bonds, FD, Direct Equity, etc. for wealth creation and Insurance products for wealth protection. Through Estate planning, we will be entering in to the arena of complete financial planning which will cater Wealth transfer needs of the customers.

3 What is estate planning and what are the tools / ways in which it can be managed?

Estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time alive or dead. Estate planning is a systematic approach to distribute one's estate / property according to his wishes. The ultimate goal of estate planning is to fulfill the estate owner's wishes as closely as possible.

There are several tools of estate planning, such as, Will, Trust, Gift, Power of Attorney, by which one can transfer / distribute his / her assets.

4 Why writing a Will is important for everyone?

There are several benefits of writing a Will. I will list down important ones here.

1. When a person dies without writing a Will, his properties will be distributed as per the succession laws of the religion, he belongs to and not as per his wish. For example, a Hindu male dies without writing a Will, his properties will be distributed among his class I legal heirs in equal proportion. Class I legal heirs includes Mother, Spouse and Children. To every body's surprise Father is not a class I legal heir and even though he may be a dependent, he will get nothing.

2. The other most important benefit of writing a Will is to appoint a Guardian for your minor children. Just imagine if something happens to you and your spouse, who will take care of your children? And who will take care of your property which will be transferred to you children only after they become major?

3. The other benefit is consolidation of assets. When you write a will, you have to provide details of your all assets thus you will have details of all assets on one page.

4. We acquire two things from our birth till the death (i) Relations and (ii) Property and if we wish that our loved ones will not fight over distribution of the property, we should mention our wishes about the distribution of the property on paper.

5 How can Partners benefit from the NJ WWS?

Financial planning is a business of trust. A customer will only allow his advisor to discuss about his life, if he has trust on the advisor. I believe, NJ Partners will come to know who are their real customers and for whom they should spend their valuable time. This service will help NJ Partners, to get trust and loyalty from customers. The relationship of advisor and client will go to the next level if he offers him this service.

As I already mentioned Will writing is a tool of wealth transfer and with this service, NJ Partners will have complete financial planning tools under their belts. Economically too, NJ Partners will make revenue out of every will registered under them.

6 What are the key features of NJ WWS?

NJ WWS is a web based IT solution which has all the convenience a customer needs in writing a Will. Here are the key features of NJ WWS...

1. Login to NJ WWS is restricted to subscribing customers only and it is secured with OTP. Every time customer will access the NJ WWS, a OTP will be sent to his registered Mobile No and Email id.

2. It helps customers consolidate their assets into virtually every asset class /product.

3. We have given flexibility of distribution of assets up to three layers. Customers thus can do ...

   1. General distribution of all assets among the beneficiaries or

   2. Asset class /category specific distribution among the beneficiaries or

   3. Individual asset entry level distribution among the beneficiaries

4. Preparation of Will to be done through experienced panel of lawyers which will communicate with customer in case of any clarity in data entered by customers

5. Only authorized panel lawyers and select employees will have access to data

6. The system is hosted on secured environment with SSL certification with data transmission takes place in encrypted form only

7 How can one register for the NJ WWS?

Registration to NJ WWS is currently restricted to NJ customers only through their Client desk. For customers to enroll for NJ WWS, first NJ Partners have to give their consent for NJ WWS services by accepting terms and conditions on their NJ Partner desk under Admin > consent for NJ WWS. To begin with we have offered this service only to Partners in cities of Surat, Mumbai & Delhi.

Upon subscription to NJ WWS, customers of subscribing Partners can see NJ WWS link on their client desk menu. Customer have to create an account by entering basic details including Mobile no and email id. An OTP will be sent to this mobile no and email id. Upon verifying OTP, customer can proceed for registration fees payment page. By paying registration charges – presently Rs.10,000 + taxes, an account will be created which will remain active for 30 days for entering data.

8 Why should one choose to register for NJ WWS instead of writing his/her Will directly?

The Law does not require any one to write a will in a specific format or language or style. But there are prerequisites of writing a Will that will ensure that the Will document will not be disputed. Here are a few things that cannot be compromised...

1. The language of the Will should be unambiguous. Ambiguity in language may lead to dispute on the validity of the Will and even lead to court litigations.

2. Clear information about the executors, beneficiaries, guardians for minor children and their relationship should be mentioned in the Will.

3. Clear information of what assets will be given and in what proportion to which beneficiary should also be mentioned.

4. Statements on family background, including statements / reasons for including / excluding any specific beneficiaries should be appropriately covered.

5. Preparation should be through a trusted advisor

NJ WWS ensures all the points mentioned above are well taken care of by a panel of lawyers on board who have years of experience in succession planning and Will writing. Therefore we advice all to use services of NJ WWS to ensure proper language, coverage and format and to avoid grounds on which a Will can be contested /disputed.

9 What should interested Partners prepare for having this service in their offerings?

As I mentioned, to become complete financial planner, one must include estate planning services under his belt. A customer will only open up him self against you, if he has trust on you. Once you acquire that trust, the relationship will be lifelong. And It is just a matter of time that even after the death of the customer, you will earn respect from his family, having served as his financial advisor. Having been said that the more and more customers you serve, the better financial planner you will be. Therefore to offer NJ WWS services to you customers, login in to you Partner desk today and give your consent for NJ WWS under Admin menu.

10 What are your future plans regarding estate planning services?

We have presently launched NJ WWS for Partners in select cities of Surat, Mumbai & Delhi. The ideas was to get the experience /feedbacks /suggestions for the same before we scale it to other cities. Very soon, we plan to launch it for Partners belonging to other metro cities.

Currently we are only offering Will writing services through NJ WWS. In near future, we have plans to offer Codicil services and My Legacy Report services. Gradually we may also open up other services also in coordination /partnership with reputed law firms. It may include other value added services like will registration, executor related services, trust management services, etc. This is just the beginning and we will wait for suggestions of our Partners in this regard and will work accordingly.

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