Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd. (Max Life PFM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Max Life Insurance Company Ltd. (“Max Life”/”Company”), organized a panel discussion on the theme of “Building Bridges to Financial Confidence: Empowering Women in Finance” to mark the National Pension System (NPS) Diwas. The panel focused on the importance of financial planning, especially pension and retirement, for women in India.
L to R: Ranbheer Singh Dhariwal, CEO, Max Life PFM; Sumeet Kaur Kapoor, Executive Director, PFRDA; K. Ratna Prabha, Retd. IAS Officer, Founder & President, Ubuntu Consortium; Preeti Chandrashekhar, Business Leader – Health & Wealth, Mercer; Priyanka Mitra, EVP & Head – Distribution HR, Diversity & Inclusion, Max Life & Santosh Agarwal, Chief Business Officer, Policybazaar.com
The discussion drew inspiration from this year’s NPS Diwas theme, ‘NPS Zaroori Hai’, and encouraged every Indian, especially women, to build a financial corpus to secure their own financial future. The discussion underscored the low participation of women in financial decision-making while focusing on the challenges faced by them in planning their financial goals. Women business leaders from diverse backgrounds shared experiences on their relationship with money.
The panel was moderated by Mr. Ranbheer Singh Dhariwal, CEO, Max Life PFM, and the panelists included – Ms. Sumeet Kaur Kapoor, Executive Director, PFRDA; Ms. Santosh Agarwal, Chief Business Officer, PolicyBazaar.com; Ms. Priyanka Mitra, EVP & Head – Distribution HR, Diversity and Inclusion, Max Life; Ms. K. Ratna Prabha, Retd. IAS officer, Founder and President, Ubuntu Consortium; and Ms. Preeti Chandrashekhar, Business Leader – Health and Wealth, Mercer.
Mr. Ranbheer Singh Dhariwal, Chief Executive Officer, Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd. said, “Women have unique financial journeys, and they often face distinct challenges. Max Life PFM understands the critical role financial confidence plays in overall well-being, and this panel was aimed at providing an impetus to the involvement of women in financial planning. Empowering women is vital for achieving a financially inclusive society, and their full participation in decision-making is essential for gender equality. Women face unique challenges during retirement like longevity, break in career and hence all the more reason to plan for retirement once they understand and have the financial confidence. I thank all the esteemed panelists for sharing their personal experiences and their vision on the financial empowerment of women, and I believe that such platforms will enable equality of rights in financial decision-making in society.”
Ms. Sumeet Kaur Kapoor, Executive Director, PFRDA said, “Awareness is the key starting point of retirement planning; however, irrespective of gender, it is inadequate. Today, due to advancements in medical technology, the life expectancy of humans, especially women, has gone up. Hence, as an economy, if feminization of old age is happening and women don’t have incomes in their hands, the spending power of the entire nation goes down. In light of this, it becomes important to tap the womens segment at a macro level. At the individual level, as women are expected to outlive their spouses by 5 to 7 years on account of the age differential at the time of marriage and longer longevity, retirement planning for women is imperative, with which one can have a regular, life-long income stream for themselves. This is something that the panel strongly feels and hence aims to drive awareness across the society.”
The panelists drew on their own experiences to provide guidance and financial tips to a keen audience. Key topics that were discussed included ways and means of empowering women economically, the challenges they face in financial planning, and impediments to awareness. The outcomes and suggestions of the panel discussion were that there needs to be a disproportionate focus on educating women on why and how they can take charge of their finances. Shedding light on strategies and initiatives that can bridge the gap by providing women with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in the finance sector, the discussion underlined that empowering women in this field is not just a matter of equity but also a catalyst for economic growth and societal progress.
About Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd.
Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Max Life Insurance Company Limited which is India’s leading private life insurance company managing Asset Under Management (AUM) of Rs. 1 lakh+ Crore. Max Life Pension Fund Management Ltd. is registered as a Pension Fund Manager (PFM) under Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to manage pension corpus for the subscribers of NPS.
For more information, please visit www.maxlifepensionfund.com.