Will patenting financial plans happen in India?

NEW DELHI: While a new breed offinancial planners in US are patenting their tax, insurance and estate planningstrategies, planners at home are brainstorming over benefit of such patents fortheir businesses.Like in US, there is a patent for estate planninginvolving life insurance policies, patent no 6,625,582 enables social securityrecipients to convert future payments into current benefits. Wakingup to this paradigm shift, Indian financial planners have started to deliberateon this subject. While patent law in India doesn''t consider financial planningstrategies as innovations, experts say that business-method patents should beencouraged in the country."You cannot patent a financial strategy here. At themost you can copyright them," says Manoj Kumar, senior partner, Hammurabi &Solomon. "We have a long way to go to catch up with US.Predominantly we are a service economy and we should bring in changes,accommodating new areas in our patent laws."Here, Indian plannerssee lucrative prospects in the long run. Owning a patent means, other advisorscannot legally use that method, without permission and payingfees.However, for them, intellectual property is a new world."Nobodyhas tried patenting tax or estate planning strategies here. We have developedunique ideas over a period of time and we will work to protect our intellectualproperty," says Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Capital.At present, thefinancial planning industry itself is nascent and planners act as CFOs toindividual investors. Experts say that advice is still not considered as aproduct in India, as majority of people think that housewives can manageinvestments better than outsiders. But, in recent times, high net worthindividuals are seeking service from financial planners, who identify investmentgoals, develop strategies, manage cash flow."At present, we are farbehind, but financial patents are bound to catch up in India," says HimanshuKohli, partner Client Associates, a specialised wealth management firm. Kohlimaintained that there is already a rise in high net worth community in India andpatented strategies will be needed for better returns.However, AlokVajpayee, president DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund disagrees."It''s a littlefar-fetched and not necessary. India has a lot to cover before getting patentedproducts. Moreover, there is a confidential agreement and secrecy betweeninvestment advisor and the client," says Vajpayee.