I often come across requests to recommend ‘best’ mutual funds to invest or ‘best’ ULIPs to buy or ‘best’ health insurance plans.  When I ask them why they would need ‘best’ products, they have no answers.  Yes, I agree that when you buy a product, if it is affordable, buy the best one.  This is true, let us say, if you are buying a washing machine or a LCD TV.  The purpose you will use these products for is known.  Are you clear for what purpose you want to buy a ‘best’ product?  Is it for accumulating wealth or accumulating retirement corpus or regular income..?

Retirement Phase

Products that offer no solutions are no good for you even if they are the best.  You will regret the decision later and it would have cost you a fortune to own the products.

By the way, solution may have time horizon attached to it.  A particular solution may work only for a specified duration.  A right solution would be based more on strategies and tactics. You need to change your strategy or tactic when the times change. The products you use must be flexible to accommodate changes to your strategies and tactics. Look at the picture which depicts the typical investment process for retirement planning.  The products that you use in each phase have to be different to meet the requirement. So, don’t chase products.  Find a solution.