Children's Education Planning

From school changes to global higher education, we build a dedicated funding plan for every child, factoring in inflation, currency exposure and the timeline of each milestone — so college does not compete with retirement.

What we do for you

• Milestone mapping through school, undergraduate and postgraduate
• Education inflation and currency-risk assumptions
• Dedicated SIPs and target-date allocations
• Progressive de-risking as milestones approach
• Adequate life cover to protect the goal

How we work

1. 01Map each child's education timeline and target country
2. 02Model corpus, inflation and currency exposure
3. 03Build a dedicated, milestone-linked investment plan
4. 04Review annually and de-risk as milestones approach

A goal with a fixed date and rising cost

Education funding has two characteristics that make it unlike most other goals. The date is essentially immovable — a child turns eighteen when they turn eighteen — and the cost has historically risen faster than general inflation, particularly for professional courses and overseas study. Together these mean the plan needs both discipline in accumulation and certainty as the date approaches.

We begin by putting a realistic number on it. Current cost of the likely course, inflated at an education-specific rate to the year of enrolment, spread across the years of study rather than treated as a single outflow. For overseas study, currency movement is a further variable that has historically worked against Indian families and deserves explicit treatment rather than a hopeful assumption.

A glide path from growth to certainty

When the child is young and the horizon is fifteen years, the portfolio can carry meaningful equity exposure, because there is time to absorb a poor stretch. As enrolment approaches, that capacity disappears. A forty per cent drawdown eighteen months before the first term fee is not a temporary setback; it is a changed decision about where your child studies.

We therefore run an explicit glide path: growth-oriented in the early years, progressively shifting to fixed income and highly liquid instruments as the date nears, with the final two to three years of fees essentially de-risked. The transitions are scheduled in advance and executed regardless of how markets feel at the time, which is precisely the point.

Protection is part of the education plan

An education plan that depends on the parent's continued income is incomplete until that income is insured. Adequate term cover, sized to include the full remaining education liability, ensures the goal survives the loss of an earner. This is one of the clearest illustrations of why protection precedes investment.

Where a will exists, the education fund and the appointment of a guardian should be consistent with it. A minor cannot manage a corpus, and clarity about who administers the money for the child's benefit prevents a great deal of later difficulty.

Overseas study and currency exposure

For families anticipating study abroad, the liability is denominated in a foreign currency while the savings are usually in rupees. Historical rupee depreciation has meant that a plan built purely on domestic returns has often fallen short in real terms. We consider partial exposure to internationally invested funds where suitable and available, subject to regulatory limits that apply from time to time, and we build a larger buffer into the target figure.

Practical planning also covers the education loan option, which for many families is a sensible complement rather than an alternative — preserving liquidity, potentially attracting a deduction on interest, and spreading the cost. We work through the combination rather than assuming the fund must cover one hundred per cent.

Involving the child

In our experience, families who tell children what has been set aside and how it was built produce better outcomes on both sides. The child understands the cost of the choice they are making, and the parent is spared the assumption of an unlimited budget. It also happens to be the most natural introduction to investing a young person will get.

We are glad to include older children in a review meeting where parents would like that. Explaining compounding, volatility and the reason the portfolio is being de-risked, using their own education fund as the example, tends to be more memorable than any general lesson.

Risks & important considerations

• Education cost inflation has historically exceeded general inflation; projections should be built conservatively and revisited periodically.
• Market-linked investments used in an education plan carry risk of capital loss. No return is assured.
• The de-risking glide path must be followed on schedule; deferring it because markets look attractive reintroduces the risk it exists to remove.
• Currency movement can materially change the rupee cost of overseas education.
• Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme related documents carefully before investing.

Frequently asked questions about Children's Education Planning

More questions are answered on our general FAQ page and in the Knowledge Centre.

Who this typically suits

Not sure where you fit? Our seven-step process begins with a discovery conversation before anything is recommended.