The Ultimate Planner

Zindagi aur maut uparwale ke hath hai jahapana, jise na aap badal sakte hai na mein… hum sab to rangmanch ki katputliaan hai, jiski dor uparwale ke haath bandhi hai ..KAB KAUN KAISE UTHEGA YE KOI NAHI JANTA..

These lines from the movie Anand teach us many things!! As planners, we always believe in planning for future and in the best interest of our clients. However, there are situations where we have to gamble and take a chance for our clients. These situations are rarely arise, but our instinct and understanding of the clients risk taking ability will decide the quantum of gamble.

The last two years have changed many things for us, the way we approach our clients and what clients expect from us. They have basically been a reality check for mankind. As planners, we have to be ready to face the unseen and plan. When we were kids, our grandma used to tell us stories of her childhood and her experiences. More often than not, these experiences would revolve around miracles they had witnessed as kids. We always used to be in awe of such things as we ourselves hadn’t witnessed any miracles.

The pandemic experiences for our clients made us believe in the presence of the ultimate force beyond our planning. Both these situations were related to the goals of foreign education. We had one of our client whose daughter wanted to go abroad for a 18 month course. Our client is a single mother, who is just able to make her both ends meet. Her only investments are the money received from life insurance proceeds upon death of her husband. Equity investments generated profits which were used to make part payment. Her daughter is responsible and knowing the situation; had got an approval for education loan and was willing to repay the same. As though He knew our apprehensions; the client received a windfall from one of her old court cases and the entire expense was taken care.

In another instance, we had a situation where our client had made provisions for the foreign education of his son. All investments were made coinciding with these goals. The bull run of stock market also contributed to this. Later, when we met the client for review, we got to know that client had battled Covid and was mentally relieved that timely redemptions of investments enabled smooth payment of fees. Such experiences give us an indication that miracles do happen.

As quoted in Bhagwad Gita – ‘Karm kar fal ki ichha mat kar’, we should continue our journey and make efforts to help our clients realize their goals. Everything else falls in place automatically. These little things make our belief in god a little stronger. They humble us down and help us face a reality that in the end we are puppets in the hands of god