How this IT couple tackled a crisis on their path to financial security

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MUMBAI: How do you deal with unexpected financial events, such as medical emergencies or job loss? Most people are unprepared for such events and are eventually forced to dip into their savings. Some already have a financial plan in place to meet any exigencies and their life goals.

To be sure, financial planning and advice are taken much more seriously globally, while Indians are slowly opening up to it.

Ahead of Word Financial Planning Day, which falls on 4 October this year, Mint spoke with a Bengaluru-based family about their decision to opt for a financial planner and how their 10-year financial plan helped them achieve their goals.

Sreekumar, 50, who works in the information technology (IT) sector, says the wake-up call for his family came when his father fell ill suddenly. “He was admitted to the intensive care unit of an hospital and the treatment lasted more than three months. The recovery was short and, eventually, my father died, in 2012," he recalls.

Sreekumar and his two sisters had employer insurance that covered their father’s treatment as well, but even the combined limits of these health covers were not enough to meet the treatment costs. This led to a significant depletion of family finances.

Around the same time, Lovaii Navlakhi, a Sebi-registered investment advisor (RIA) and chief executive officer of International Money Matters, told him about the financial planning services offered by his company. “It helped that Navlakhi was a neighbour," Sreekumar says. “Until then, we did some bit of financial planning by ourselves. But we were also looking for a structured approach to our finances and wanted to make sure that we had enough funds set aside for contingencies," he adds.

Navlakhi’s first piece of