Action is the best antidote to helplessness

The ferocity of Covid 2.0 has caught everyone by surprise. The desperate search for hospital beds, oxygen, and key medicines by those whose loved ones are fighting this scourge leaves one dumbstruck.

Even those not immediately affected are suffering from a sense of anticipatory helplessness about arranging medical facilities for their loved ones should they fall sick. This helplessness only deepens as they see even influential people struggle to get a hospital bed. The pandemic has destroyed the unspoken belief of the upper-middle class: In an emergency, throw money and use contacts to access medical facilities. Doesn’t work any longer.

The best antidote to feeling helpless is to take action. Let me recount the steps I have taken to help readers work out their own course of action.

First, I increased my budget for helping others. I contributed to a couple of organisations that are working to save lives by providing medical equipment. I also contributed to local efforts to help people around me, like domestic staff, the housing society’s staff, and people connected to them. But the highest satisfaction has come from using my professional skills to assist people.

A friend, a top executive in a large company, passed away suddenly. His children are settled overseas. His homemaker spouse had only a vague idea of their financial assets, liabilities, etc. The family requested my assistance in reconstructing the financial records. The employer thankfully took care of outstanding payments from the company, provident fund, company insurance policies, etc.

My friend had two joint bank accounts with his spouse, so getting the account details was not a problem. The family had access to his mobile phone and emails — both personal and official. I asked them to initiate a consolidated mutual fund account statement request from Camsonline.com by providing both email IDS. They received the statement on his personal email ID. I also asked them to search both the inboxes for a mail from Nsdl-cas@nsdl.co.in, which they found in his personal email. It had details of all his mutual fund holdings and shares, including in the demat account he had with his bank and broker. They were also able to tally the mutual fund holdings from the consolidated account statement.

I asked his spouse to login to www.cibil.com to get a free credit report, which provided the details of his existing credit cards and loans. He did not have any loan outstanding. The report showed a single credit card from his bank where he had a savings account. The spouse was able to login to the bank account and pay off his credit card outstanding.

Fortunately, he had a single insurance agent and getting his policy details was not difficult. His spouse logged into his income-tax account (which he filed himself) to get details of the return filed. It showed there was no tax liability or refund due.

These techniques for reconstructing financial records can be used by anyone on whom such an unfortunate responsibility devolves. In an earlier column, I have discussed how the family can handle financial matters where the main wage earner is unavailable due to medical reasons. Apply those lessons in advance to make things simple for your family members, should something happen to you.

The Association of Registered Investment Advisers (ARIA), of which I am a board member, will launch an initiative called #Ariacares encapsulating these and other learnings, which will be available on aria.org.in.

The highest satisfaction has come from using my professional skills to help reconstruct the financial records of a family that lost its breadwinner