Finance
How this small-town dentist couple set their personal finance goals
“The property which houses my clinic is on rent which I will have to vacate sooner or later. I had already taken a professional loan of ₹15.11 lakh when I started my practice. I needed money for setting up my dental clinic and also for meeting my personal financial goals,” Akshat Agarwal says.
Early investment journey
Gondia is also known as ‘Rice City’ due to the abundance of rice mills in the area. “People mostly invest in land and when they need money get into informal lending at a high interest rate. I did not want to do it,” he says.
After consultation with relatives and friends, Agarwal ended up investing in more than 10 mutual fund schemes. He also created a stock portfolio. “One of my friends connected me with a mutual fund distributor (MFD) who made me start systematic investment plans (SIPs) in mutual funds. A relative later told me that distributors get commission from mutual fund companies .My distributor had not shared details of the schemes in which I had invested. I did not know that I could track these investments by myself,” he says.
Meanwhile, Agarwal lost about ₹50,000 after dabbling in the stock markets in 2021. “I was clueless about how to set things right and I needed somebody to guide me,” he says.
A random google search landed him on the website of SahajMoney, a financial planning firm founded by registered investment adviser (RIA) Abhishek Kumar. Agarwal had no idea about Sebi-registered RIAs or fixed-fee financial planning model till then. To be sure, RIAs are authorized to impart unbiased financial advice and barred from earning commissions from the sale of financial products.
“When I came to know that RIAs only charge a fixed fee for the advisory, I was impressed,” he says.
Personalized guidance was another big plus. “I had always preferred a personal tutor over coaching classes. And when Abhishek sent me an excel sheet in which I was supposed to share details of all my existing investments and also asked questions about my risk profile, it struck me that nobody had ever sought these details from me. The others would only push a product irrespective of whether it suited my risk profile or not,” says Agarwal.
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End-to-end financial planning
RIAs follow a process before creating a financial plan. They seek details of existing savings, investments, liabilities, expenses and financial goals. They also analyse their clients’ risk appetite based on a few questions. It helps them allocate their funds in debt and equities in the right proportion. Not only do they recommend investment products, but also advise on loans, insurance and saving taxes.
Agarwal didn’t have much idea about insurance either. He did have a health insurance policy of ₹5 lakh coverage from a public sector insurer. “I wasn’t aware that insurance and loan advisory will be a part of the package,” he says. On Kumar’s advice, Agarwal bought a life insurance cover of ₹2.5 crore. His wife took a term life cover of ₹1.5 crore. She was paying an annual premium of ₹1.25 lakh for an unit-linked insurance plan, but surrendered the policy and replaced it with the term plan. Besides a family floater health insurance plan from a private insurer, Kumar also suggested that Agarwal buy professional indemnity insurance and property (clinic, machinery, fire) insurance.
The right direction
Kumar asked Agarwal to separate his personal and clinic expenses. “I opened a separate account for my business expenses and earnings. It gives me a visibility of how much I am earning and spending specifically for the clinic vis-à-vis my personal expenses,” he says.
For instance, when he needed to buy medical equipment, he bought it on lease instead of dipping into personal savings. “Kumar suggested that there was no point in buying the machine as the technology will get obsolete in a couple of years,” he says.
Does he follow all advice from Kumar? Not really! “Agarwal wanted to buy a land on loan for his clinic. We initially asked him to defer the plan and focus only on building the corpus but when the couple insisted on it, we advised them to withdraw funds from the emergency corpus because they already had financial liabilities. Financial discipline was needed to move them away from excessive leverage. Moreover, being a small city, their expenses were limited against their cash flows. Their emergency corpus could be built again,” says Kumar.
Fees and process
Kumar charges ₹15,000 as first-time fixed fee to analyse a client’s finances, create a financial plan and recommend products. A renewal fee of ₹5,000 is charged after every six months to review the portfolio.
Did his fees deter the Agarwals? “The fee is surely lesser than the quality of financial advice they have given me,” he says. The process, however, could have been better. “I needed to fill up an excel sheet manually before they could on-board me. The sheet needs to get updated every time I get my portfolio reviewed,” he says.
The client implements the action plan by himself. “Abhishek shares with me relevant links but I make the investments myself. This contrasts with the MFD who had taken care of all the paperwork himself,” he says.
The excel sheet problem, though, could be addressed through account aggregators (AAs). The aggregators act as an intermediary between financial information providers (FIPs) and financial information users (FIUs) and exchange customer data after taking their consent. “Once SahajMoney is live on AA as an FIU, I shall be able to automate the process for my clients. RIAs will be able to fetch the data directly from FIPs after getting client consent,” he says.
The Agarwals, meanwhile, have made up their mind to stay connected with SahajMoney for their long-term financial planning. Their goal is to retire in their late forties before which they want their son to study abroad.
Finance
Quadient Recognized as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix for Accounts Receivable Applications
Quadient demonstrates continued innovation in AI-driven invoice-to-cash automation and unified finance operations
Paris
Quadient (Euronext Paris: QDT), a global automation platform powering secure and sustainable business connections, announced today it has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix™ for Accounts Receivable Applications by technology analyst and advisory firm QKS Group. Quadient strengthened its position in the report year-over-year, with a notable improvement in Technology Excellence, reflecting continued innovation in its AI-driven invoice-to-cash solution.
According to QKS Group, Quadient’s leadership position highlights its evolution into a comprehensive, AI-powered platform that delivers strong predictive accuracy and straight-through processing. The analyst firm also emphasized the capability of Quadient’s solutions to unify accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP), offering finance leaders greater visibility and insights into their business finances to make faster, better decisions on working capital management.
Earlier this month, Quadient announced the release of its new cash dashboard capability for AR and AP that allows finance teams to bring together traditionally siloed data in a single view. An AI assistant summarizes key metrics and provides analysis that helps finance leaders accelerate cash on hand, improve forecasting, reduce risk and uncover opportunities to optimize working capital.
“Quadient has established a strong position in the 2026 Accounts Receivable Automation market through its focus on intelligent automation, cash flow optimization and integrated financial operations,” said Sanjeevi C R, associate vice president, Enterprise Research at QKS Group. “The platform’s evolution from predictive analytics to AI-driven autonomous collections execution represents a meaningful step forward in reducing manual effort across the invoice-to-cash cycle. What differentiates Quadient is its ability to combine collections management, cash application, and payment processing with a unified accounts receivable and accounts payable ecosystem, providing finance leaders with a more holistic view of working capital performance. By enabling greater automation, enhanced cash flow visibility, and more efficient receivables operations, Quadient continues to deliver measurable value for organizations seeking to modernize their financial processes and improve liquidity management.”
QKS Group highlighted the following key strengths for Quadient AR:
The G7 Leaders’ Summit took place in Évia
Why financing matters for forest restoration
Over the past several years, Armonía and local communities have made significant progress restoring parts of the Tunari protected area. To date they have planted 1.25 million trees, with more than half of these planted in the Tiquipaya municipality. Community wildfire brigades have been strengthened, reservoirs built to secure water, and new systems created for communities to participate in watershed management.
One of the most important actions was strengthening the structure and function of a watershed governance body, known as Organismo de Gestión de Cuencas (OGC). This coordinates restoration activities and helps design sustainable development strategies for the communities living in the park, helping rebuild trust between them, park authorities and conservation organisations. Women leaders have played an important role in shaping this work.
However, a major challenge was highlighted – restoration takes decades, but most conservation funding arrives through short-term projects. Without stable long-term financing, restoration gains are difficult to maintain.
How the financing model would work
The proposed PES mechanism would collect small contributions directed into a transparent trust fund with independent governance. Resources would then be invested in three main areas:
- Forest restoration and protection – Communities would receive incentives for protecting existing forest and payments tied to successful restoration outcomes.
- Community sustainable development – Investments would support livelihood activities that reduce pressure on the forest, such as sustainable agriculture, water management and local enterprises.
- Strengthening park management – Funds would help support ranger capacity, wildfire prevention and long-term monitoring within Tunari National Park.
For communities, the system recognises their role as custodians of the watershed. For urban residents, it offers a practical way to support the ecosystems that provide their water. For public and private partners, it creates a transparent structure for long-term investment in landscape restoration.
Once fully implemented, the mechanism could generate an estimated £3 million per year for watershed protection and restoration.
Designing a Payment for Ecosystem Services mechanism
Over the past two years, Armonía has worked with municipalities, communities and regional institutions to explore how a PES mechanism could work in the Cochabamba region.
The PES concept is straightforward. Communities living in the upper watershed protect and restore forests that provide essential services such as water regulation, erosion control and biodiversity conservation. Downstream users who benefit from these services contribute financially to support that stewardship.
Through the Accelerator process, Armonía undertook studies, assessments and consultations across the Cochabamba metropolitan area’s seven municipalities. Many residents recognised that protecting the forest is directly linked to their water security. Based on these encouraging results, Armonía and their partners are developing a regional trust fund.
Building the institutions behind the mechanism
The financing system is only one piece of the puzzle – strong governance and community participation are also essential. With FIA support, Armonía is now helping communities develop ten-year sustainable development strategies that identify restoration priorities and income opportunities. A multi-stakeholder platform will oversee the initiative and guide decisions, while the park administration is also receiving support to strengthen monitoring, prevent wildfires and improve co-ordination.
A new model for watershed protection
The work underway in Tunari is about more than planting trees. It’s about building a durable system that links ecological restoration, community leadership and long-term financing. Once the mechanism is operational, it could transform how the Tunari watershed is managed. Instead of relying on intermittent projects, the region would have a locally supported financing system that rewards stewardship and protects the Kewiña forests that has supported life in the Andes for centuries.
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