30% of term life insurance applications get rejected!

Here’s a guide by Ditto Insurance on how you can avoid it.

Picture this: You applied for a term insurance plan, underwent the required medical tests, and the results returned normal. But then, out of nowhere, your insurer rejects your application.

No warning, no clarity, just a cold, hard no.

But why?

Insurers don’t just focus on your current health; they’re also trying to predict your future health risks. If their models suggest you could develop serious conditions down the line, they may reject your application. But here’s what you can do to reduce those chances:

Test Yourself Before They Test You: You’ll likely need to undergo medical tests when applying. But here’s a tip: Get these tests done yourself first. Check cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure, etc. If any markers are off, work on improving them before applying. It could save you from rejection or sky-high premiums.

Bonus Tips: If you opt for a policy with a higher sum insured (like ₹2+ Cr), insurers may require additional tests, such as a treadmill test. It’s a good idea to prepare for these in advance.

Also, if you’ve recently been hospitalized or had a fever, it’s best to wait 1–3 months before applying. This ensures that all your blood work is back to normal, increasing the chances of a smooth approval process.

Sweat Now, Save Later: Adopt a fitness routine like jogging or regular workouts. Improving your overall health reduces your risk profile and can increase your chances of approval (or even lower your premiums).

Quit Lying, Even If You Don’t Quit Smoking: Smokers pay higher premiums – it’s a fact. But lying about it? A disaster waiting to happen.

Insurers use cotinine tests to detect nicotine (even from months ago). If caught lying, your application could be rejected. Moreover, insurers share information, which could lead to rejections from other insurers.

What if you start smoking after buying a policy? Usually, it won’t affect claims. But it’s best to inform your insurer to avoid scrutiny later.

Oversharing Kills: Declaring everything is good, but oversharing can backfire.

If an insurer asks, “Have you smoked in the last 12 months?” and the answer is no, just mark “No.” Don’t mention living with smokers or exposure to secondhand smoke, as it could raise unnecessary red flags and lead to higher premiums. The takeaway? Answer only what’s asked, truthfully and to the point.

These tips can help you avoid rejection. But remember, insurance is personal, and there’s more to consider when buying a term plan.

That’s where Ditto Insurance guides you from application to claims, so you never navigate the pitfalls alone. Book a FREE consultation today.

Did a pandemic achieve what years of financial literacy couldn’t? How did we get here in the first place and what’s next?

We uncover how historical events shaped today’s market culture, decode the psychology behind recent investing trends, and explore what this new wave of retail participation means for India’s financial future.

Whether you’re a seasoned investor or just getting started, this dive into India’s stock market story will help you understand where we came from, where we are, and most importantly – where we’re headed.

Read this post – The dramatic transformation of the Indian stock market by Bhuvan.

Why do you need a bank account?

This is the fourth video in the Zerodha Varsity junior series, in which Karthik Rangappa switches to being a kindergarten teacher to explain why we need a bank account. 😀

Have you ever handed over your phone to a stranger in need of “just one call”? This simple act of kindness could cost you your entire savings.

From intercepting your OTPs to draining your bank accounts, scammers can cause serious damage without you even realizing it. In this video, we explain how these scammers operate, who they target, and most importantly, how you can protect yourself.

This was our first year as India’s direct-only AMC, Zerodha Fund House. Our AUM has grown significantly, all without us actively pushing anything.

The good thing about being passive-only is that it aligns the incentives for both the customers and us. For the customers, it means access to good, low-cost products, and for us, it eliminates the risks that have recently made headlines.

Read this post – One year of Zerodha Fund House by Vishal Jain.

We’ve added a new module on Varsity, covering all aspects of investing in the National Pension Scheme (NPS).

The NPS is a defined contribution scheme regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). It’s an excellent option for building your retirement savings as it encourages investing in a diversified portfolio of equity and debt.

Along with diversification, as NPS investments are locked in until the subscriber turns 60, it also helps you remain disciplined with your investments and avoid unnecessary tinkering.

In this Varsity module, we cover all the aspects of NPS to help you understand if this suits your investment needs or not. Read the module on Varsity or watch the video on YouTube.

Companies will start reporting their quarterly earnings for the December quarter from today. You can keep track of quarterly results for the stocks in your portfolio on Console timeline powered by Tijori.

Console timeline is a feed of key events and developments related to your investments. It’s like a social media feed but for your portfolio.

Check it out here.

You can also follow @marketalertsz on X (Twitter) to get instant alerts about quarterly results.

Looking back, 2024 was probably the best year for the brokerage industry, and it’s starting to look like the best is behind us, at least for the foreseeable future. 😬

In terms of options turnover, we are back to 2022–23 levels. This is even before the impact of the increased lot sizes, which take effect in January 2025.

We just published a post reviewing 2024 at both Zerodha and across the broking industry. The link to the full post is here.

Happy New Year!

As we step into 2025, it’s a good time to take a closer look at your personal finances. And by that, we don’t just mean your investments—those are just one part of your finances. A financial plan that doesn’t consider your unique life circumstances will always be incomplete.

In this two-part post, we highlight the important aspects that you should take care of when managing your personal finances.

Part one helps gain a better understanding of your personal finances by reviewing your goals, managing debt, insurance planning, and more.

Part two focuses on managing your investments and, most importantly, understanding and improving your financial behavior.

I don’t know if it is a good time with the fall in the markets 😬, but we are finally launching MTF (margin trading facility) which allows you to buy stocks for delivery by borrowing money from us.

I haven’t been sure about this product for a long time because of obvious reasons. Customers who trade for delivery tend to ignore the impact of the cost of borrowing, and there’s always the risk of the trade going against them, which leads to a bigger loss.

But in the last 3 to 4 years, MTF has grown tremendously, with pretty much everyone offering it. Considering the number of customers asking us for the feature, it didn’t make business sense for us to not offer it.

But yeah, like with everything else, we will never push this to customers and trigger them to trade.

More here.

SEBI recently published a consultation paper on algo trading for retail investors.

My understanding of it is it should be ok for savvy traders using APIs for individual trading with some reasonable order limits. But the APIs have to be accessed through only static IPs, but this isn’t hard to get.

But platforms that offer algos or readymade strategies will need to get them approved through the broker. The broker, in turn, has to register all algos and strategies with the exchanges.

The broker also has to ensure that customers are following the same strategies that were registered. That means brokers will have to build and offer the infrastructure for people to run their algos and ensure compliance.

We wrote about the consultation paper on Markets by Zerodha recently. 

Keeping up with upcoming events like dividends, bonuses, stock splits, quarterly results, and other corporate actions across multiple companies can be overwhelming. Tracking this information manually is time-consuming and also increases the chances of missing key updates.

This is why we have made it simpler with events search on Kite. You can now easily find stocks with upcoming corporate actions just by searching for the type of event you are interested in.

On Kite, go to the Marketwatch search, select Events, and search for any corporate action like dividends, bonuses, quarterly results, etc.

Note: Events search is currently available on Kite web and will be available on the Kite app in coming updates.

Numerous companies make business-related announcements every day. However, not all of them are significant. To help you stay informed, we’ve launched a new X (Twitter) account, Market Alerts by Zerodha: @marketalertsz

Get instant summaries of key exchange filings as soon as they happen. These alerts are delivered in real time by Tijori.

Despite all the interest in the stock market after COVID, there are still only 5 crore unique mutual fund investors. I’ve said this earlier as well—one of the biggest challenges for the Indian markets is the lack of an advisory ecosystem with just about 900 RIAs.

If you consider mutual fund distributors, there are about 2.7 lakh+ plus, but still not enough. For a broad comparison, there are over 27 lakh+ insurance agents. If Indian markets have to expand, not only do we need RIAs but MFDs as well. Moreover, it’s tricky to make the RIA model work in smaller cities and towns.

Even though we only offer direct plans at Zerodha, we know that they are not for everyone. Which means distributors will always have a role to play. Being a mutual fund distributor is also a good career option for a lot of people.

So we have teamed up with Hansi Mehrotra to launch Money Mindful, a free video series to help you prepare for the NISM distributor exam and then start your career. We’ve also partnered with AssetPlus, which helps distributors start their business once they pass the exam through Rainmatter.

Check out the post here.

You can now use margin received from pledging securities to trade Commodity F&O on both, MCX and NSE.

What is pledging?

If you are holding stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and bonds in your demat account, these securities can be pledged as collateral margin, which can be used for equity intraday trading, trading futures, writing options, and now commodity F&O trading.

Watch our video guide on pledging securities here.

At Zerodha, we provide a single ledger facility that allows you to trade in both equity and commodity segments (MCX and NSE Commodity) using the same funds in your trading account. To enable this facility on the Kite app, follow the steps below:

1. Tap on Profile and then on Segments.
2. Tap on Commodity and tap on Continue.
3. Select Gross income, Trading experience and Commodity trade classification.
4. Upload income proof or select holdings statement as income proof.
5. Tap on the undertaking and select mobile or email for OTP.
6. Tap on Continue, enter the OTP and tap on Verify.

You can also follow our step-by-step video on activating the single ledger here.

Allowing transactions in unlisted shares is a violation of SEBI regulations. Clarification from SEBI, today.

Coming soon⌛️

We just added the Search by Brands feature on Zerodha.  Currently available on Kite web and soon on mobile. 😀

Medical expenses are the biggest financial burden households face, which makes having health insurance a must. Here’s a guide to choosing the right health insurance plan and handling claim rejections by Ditto Insurance.

We’re excited to support the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund, a program dedicated to making open-source projects more secure and sustainable. The fund offers developers financial support, security education, mentorship, and more.

If you are working on an open source project, you can apply for this program until 7th January.

Nifty is trading below its 200-DMA for the first time since April 2023.

Here’s how it has performed after closing below 200-DMA.

These fake app and website scams keep getting worse and worse. Not a day goes by where I don’t read about such scams or hear from people who’ve been affected. The scale of these scams is just insane.
There are now countless phishing scams that take advantage of the familiarity of all major brands, celebrities, etc. The tricks vary—fake apps, fake websites, fake social media profiles, scam calls—but all with the same goal: to steal your money. We’ve discovered multiple such scams in the name of Zerodha.

These scams work because they take advantage of our emotions like hope, fear, and greed. Two simple rules that can protect you:
1. Never act in a hurry and always verify.
2. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Be extremely suspicious about everything. If you’re seeing this post, you’re probably already aware of these scams, so please share this with your friends and family who might be more vulnerable.

The new technicals widget is now available on the Kite app.

Powered by Streak, the widget gives a quick overview of the market with a market heatmap, top gainers and losers, scanners, and strategies, and more.

It’s been 10 years since we started Varsity. What began as a simple blog has gradually grown into a full-fledged stock market education initiative. Today, Varsity spans text, video, audio, and our latest addition—a live format called Varsity Live. It’s an interactive, live education program and the first of its kind.

When we started, Karthik and I decided that Varsity would have no agenda. There would be no pitching of Zerodha to Varsity users, no mandatory login, or anything else. Ten years later, we’re proud to say we’ve stuck to the original principle. We have over two million users on Varsity, and we still don’t know if they even have Zerodha accounts. 😬

By the way, here’s the link to Varsity Live. If you’re interested, there’s a course starting tomorrow.  😃

Markets will remain closed on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, on account of Assembly Elections in Maharashtra.

Keep track of all trading holidays here.