I am a salaried person and I would like to take a loan against gold. Please suggest how to go about it and find lenders offering a low rate of interest.
You can take a loan against the security of your gold ornaments. Lenders usually finance as much as 90 per cent of the value of gold jewellery or ornaments. Gold loans are issued typically for the duration of one year. However, the tenure can be extended at the prevailing rate of interest when the tenure is extended. You can walk into any branch of the lender along with your gold jewellery.

The lender will evaluate your jewellery and will provide the loan based on their valuation, which can be lower than the value that you estimate. The trick to get a lower rate of interest is to ensure that your loan does not exceed more than 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the value of the jewellery. This will ensure lower rate of interest usually 12 per cent per annum. Muthoot Finance and Manapurram Finance are two very active lenders against gold jewellery.

I availed a home loan four years ago for a period of 20 years. Now I want to transfer the loan to my brother. Do I need to make a new agreement to transfer the home loan and will it be wise to transfer the loan or gift it to him (if possible)?
You cannot ‘gift a loan’ or ‘transfer a loan’. You will need to pay off your existing loan fully and your brother will need to purchase the property and get a new loan on it. You can sell the property to your brother, but change of ownership will have stamp-duty implications. It is possible that your existing bank may agree to provide the loan to your brother based on his income documents and he can use this loan to pay you off, which in turn can be used by you to pay off your loan to the bank.

I bought a term policy for 15 years a few years ago. Now I am 24 and my cover will lapse when I am around 35-36. Can I extend the period of my term plan? Should I buy another term plan? I have heard about whole life plan as well. Is it better to go for that?
Life insurance is needed only in two scenarios, firstly if you have anyone dependent on your income and secondly if you have a loan. In case you have either of these 2 requirements for life insurance, we recommend you to go for term insurance with a policy tenure extending to your retirement age. Your present term insurance policy cannot be modified so you need to buy another policy. Buy a term policy for the full amount you need and let the old policy expire when it comes up for renewal. Make sure you have the new policy in your hand before you let the existing policy expire. You will benefit from this since premiums for term plans have dropped significantly in last one year.

I hold an insurance policy, which covers all my family members. A newborn sister also needs to be insured. Is it advisable to take a separate policy for her?
We deduce you are talking about health insurance where you want to include your new born sister. We would recommend you take out a separate insurance policy for her. Most of the insurance companies will not insure your sister if the parents are not insured with the same policy.
Since your family already has a health insurance policy, it would be better if you talk to the same insurance firm and see if they can offer your sister a separate individual policy.

Harsh Roongta is the CEO of Apnapaisa.com. You can send in your queries to movingmoney
@deccanmail.com