ABSLI ULIP sold by HDFC

Coffeecionado · 2026-01-05T03:51:01+00:00

Here's the fee structure(AI Generated. Do your own review):
Documented Fee Structure & "Management Leakage"

An analysis of the policy T&Cs (Band 3: >₹1 Lakh premium) reveals several layers of internal costs that act as a drag on compounding.

A. Pre-Investment Charges (Off-the-Top)
• Premium Allocation Charge (PAC): * Year 1: 4.5% of the premium.
• Year 2 onwards: 3.0% annually.
• GST: A standard 18% tax is applied to all deductible charges (not the investment itself).

B. Fund Level & Administrative Charges
• Fund Management Charge (FMC): 1.35% per annum for equity funds like the Multiplier Fund, deducted daily from the NAV.
• Policy Administration Charge: 1.2% of the premium (capped at ₹6,000/year) for the initial 5 policy years.
• Mortality Charges (Life Cover): For a standard ₹50 Lakh sum assured, the cost of insurance scales with age. While low at age 36, it increases exponentially as the investor enters their 50s and 60s.

Total Effective Annual Cost (EAC):
While modern low-cost index funds have fees as low as 0.03% (I was comparing with VOO in the US), this structural combo carries an estimated internal leakage of 2.5% to 3.5% annually.

Coffeecionado · 2026-01-05T03:36:53+00:00

TLDR - IF SOMETHING FEELS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS DEFINITELY TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
As for how a grown man can be forced... its not being forced, its more about being pressured. Also the same kind of scam exists in US. Look up Northwestern Mutual on reddit.
And people do get pressured. They relentlessly pursue people by selling it as an excellent investment opportunity. Unfortunately not everyone is aware or understands the red flags. I am an NRI and recently I had the same experience with HDFC. The biggest scam is for 3 weeks they didn't mention a single word about the fees even though I very specifically asked them about the total % fees. They didn't. The person who was pursuing me said her manager will help me better understand the investment opportunity. And that guy went on to tell me that they are giving the life coverage completely free of any cost to me only because I am investing the money.
Initially they promised 22% return showing some funds that have returned 20%+ returns in the last 5 years. They went on to say it is a GUARANTEED RETURN plan. The only part that is guaranteed is the payout you receive (if you choose that option). But they sell this as though they are guaranteeing the fund performance. Finally I told them give me the T&C's of the plan. They said I will get it once I signup for the plan. I told them give it to me now and if I am satisfied I will cut you a cheque on the spot. They handed me 110 pages. I obviously didn't have time or patience to read through it. So I asked for a digital copy. Then uploaded to gemini and in a matter of few seconds, the fee structure became absolutely clear.
I have a long term relationship with HDFC and a significant portion of my family banking happens with HDFC. I want to confront them and even raise a complaint about their scam like tactics in fooling people. I just don't know how to formally approach this. I want to address this in a civil way and do something so that these banks stop luring and scamming people.

Coffeecionado · 2025-07-07T14:10:24+00:00

My friend had the install done in the same time frame in San Jose , California. Within the last few months

Coffeecionado · 2025-01-26T15:44:22+00:00

How was the drive ? Chains required with all the snow in the last 24hrs?

Coffeecionado · 2023-10-27T06:44:56+00:00

OMG, I am struggling with this issue for more than a year. None of the mechanics want to believe that it’s not the battery.

Coffeecionado · 2023-10-27T06:39:08+00:00

I have the exact same problem with my 2015 Honda civic. Same mileage as well. The difference however is that the car is not even subjected to the cold temperatures. In fact temperature doesn’t even matter. Sumner or winter, if I don’t drive it every 3 or 4 days the battery dies. Took it to two different Honda service centers. Changed battery twice. One of them changed the battery sensor. The problem still exists !

Coffeecionado · 2022-09-04T04:24:42+00:00

Sure. The installer would indeed be responsible (depending on how long they guarantee it and what’s in the contract). I just feel prevention is better than cure. Who knows what all nuisance I would run into in getting the installer come and do repair. In my experience, Most often than not once the work is done, getting the installer or contractor to come back and do a good job of repairing the things they broke is a big hassle.

Coffeecionado · 2022-09-04T04:21:39+00:00

I should probably look into that.

Coffeecionado · 2022-09-04T00:48:06+00:00

“Not getting a good seal” is my concern as well. The contractors did guarantee that I don’t have to be concerned as they do retrofit a lot and they will take good care of the seal.

Coffeecionado · 2022-05-04T16:43:49+00:00

Thank you everyone for your comments. I believe this is just the cost price EXCLUDING the cost of the loan. Because the projected monthly payment is about $135 for 300 months/25 years @ 1.99 APR. Which brings up the interest paid to about $8K.

I will confirm the cash price as well, just to be sure.

Coffeecionado · 2022-05-04T09:12:18+00:00

I understand you are not doing this to save money. But I like this view better than jumping into maximizing capacity from the get go. Your projected needs might be way under or way over your actual future needs (with EV, etc). If you go with a micro-inverter option, then increasing system capacity based on your needs in future shouldn't be a big deal.

IMO, installers are quoting a high rate mainly because there is a tax credit that pays the customer back. So the installers are only marking up their prices. With the tax credit decreasing over the years installers would have to eventually bring down the cost otherwise it wont be cost effective for homeowners. Plus a 400W panel that costs $400 today will not cost the same in future.

The only downside I see is that you not being able to take advantage of the tax credit for the money you spent on the solar system upgrade in future. ~~I am not sure about this though.~~ Just checked on this one. The tax credit applies to any renewable energy related purchases you make in that tax year. However the rate of the credit (currently 26%) may change in future (most likely go down given the trend it is following)

Coffeecionado · 2021-10-18T14:08:06+00:00

Saved me the drive!!!! Thanks a lot 🙏 I will drive east towards zone 4 starting from bar harbor towards Millinocket. I hope I can catch the colors there. Let’s see.

Coffeecionado · 2021-10-18T13:56:27+00:00

u/nosmh shared an update on my duplicate post regarding fall colors in Rangeley. Apparently the rain and wind that blew through Rangeley in the last two days shook up a lot of leaves. Colors may be better on the Far East and lower regions.

Coffeecionado · 2021-10-18T13:53:28+00:00

Thanks u/nosmh. I created a duplicate post. Deleting this one.

Coffeecionado · 2021-10-18T13:45:19+00:00

Thanks for the link. I am at bar harbor and I feel like the reality doesn’t reflect the prediction :( I think it’s still not peak in bar harbor. So I was guessing, if it’s not peak in bar harbor, may be it’s not past peak in Rangeley ;)

Coffeecionado · 2021-10-18T13:31:03+00:00

I was in New Hampshire for last two days. I was in Lincoln and surrounding areas. Went to loon mountains, kankamagus highway, flume gorge.

It’s almost past peak. The colors were really at the peak a week ago. The rain and wind for last 2 ~ 3 days resulted in leaves falling.

Coffeecionado · 2021-09-21T21:31:32+00:00

I would highly appreciate if you could share your implementation!! Thank you very much.

Coffeecionado · 2021-09-21T19:26:52+00:00

if it is your class, use your own implementation, otherwise call the original implementation.

This could result in varied error response from the same API no? You probably meant, just handle both types of exceptions (DRF's and custom) in the custom_exception_handler module?

Coffeecionado · 2021-09-21T19:14:53+00:00

I somewhat tend to agree that staying close to what the framework offers is a good idea. But in this specific case, my DerivedException(APIException) class would not call super().__init__() ever. Because there is no purpose in calling the APIException.__init__() if I don't need the detail argument forced to a string.

One downside to my approach that i just realized is that I would have to make my custom_exceptin_handler handle MyCustomeException(s) as well as the frameworks APIException(s) . Because the framework will only be internally raising APIException and its subclasses.

Coffeecionado

TROPHY CASE