ICICI Advantage Deposit – Product Review

Written by Gopal Gidwani

Ramesh is a risk averse investor. Over the last many years he has been investing in traditional investment products like Bank Fixed Deposits and Government sponsored schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC) and various Postal Office Schemes etc. He was happy with the returns on fixed income securities. So he never gave a serious thought on investing in equity markets. Previously investments in fixed income securities like PPF and NSC used to earn him a return of 12%. But over the last few years the Government has brought down the interest rates on these products from 12% to 8%. Ramesh is not happy with the interest rates coming down from 12% to 8%. But at the same time in the lure to earn high returns Ramesh is sceptical about investing in equity markets as he is not willing to take risk as he has seen some of his friends lose even a portion of their capital because of investments in stock markets. So what is the solution for people like Ramesh who don’t want to risk their capital and at the same time have some exposure to capital markets so that they can earn superior returns as compared to returns given by fixed income securities.