Handling an IT Layoff in Pune: How to Protect Your Wealth and Manage EMIs

Last reviewed: August 12, 2026

Q: What should an IT professional in Pune do financially in the first 30 days after a layoff?

A: Map a 6-to-9 month runway first by totaling severance pay and emergency cash against fixed EMIs and essential expenses. Audit your severance against the Labour Code floor — one month's notice, 15 days' pay per year of service, settlement within two working days. Do not panic-sell long-term equity; use liquid funds first and EPF behind them, after establishing which EPF Scheme 2026 route your exit falls under. Raise health insurance porting immediately, and contact your lender about EMI restructuring before missing a payment.

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Why Pune deserves its own playbook

Generic layoff advice doesn't survive contact with a Hinjewadi home loan. The economics of a Pune IT career — premium-area real estate, dual-income households often at the same campus, ₹2-4 lakh annual school fees, parents on the group health policy — mean the standard "build a 3-month emergency fund" advice underestimates the real cash flow stress by 50-70%.

This is written for the senior engineer, EM or tech lead in Hinjewadi, Wakad, Magarpatta, Kharadi, Baner or Balewadi notified of a separation in 2026. For the broader resilience view, the pillar checklist; for severance tax and RSU handling, the severance and RSU tax guide; for a no-hike year while still employed, the zero-increment rebalancing guide.

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Part 1: The Hinjewadi/Magarpatta Runway Calculator

The single most important number in the first 72 hours is your runway in months. Everything else — sell decisions, EMI conversations, lifestyle adjustments — flows from it.

The formula

Runway (months) = (Liquid cash + Confirmed severance + Accessible EPF) ÷ Monthly essential burn

Where each input is defined conservatively:

• Liquid cash: Savings accounts, liquid mutual funds, short-term FDs. Do not include equity mutual funds, PMS, or RSUs at this stage.
• Confirmed severance: Net of TDS, only the amount in writing. Verbal HR assurances don't count.
• Accessible EPF: treat this as a second-tier reserve, not primary runway. What you can actually draw depends on how you exited — see Part 3.
• Monthly essential burn: Fixed EMIs + insurance premiums + school fees (averaged monthly) + utilities + groceries + medical + minimum lifestyle costs. Strip out anything truly discretionary.

A realistic Hinjewadi example

A senior engineer in Hinjewadi Phase 2, age 38, dual-income household (spouse continues employment), one child in international school:

Liquidity inputs

• Savings + liquid funds: ₹8,00,000
• Severance (net): 4 months × ₹2,50,000 = ₹10,00,000
• EPF partial withdrawal available (₹35L corpus, 25% must remain): up to ₹26,25,000
• Total runway capital, if EPF is drawn: ₹44,25,000
• Primary runway, excluding EPF: ₹18,00,000

Monthly essential burn

• Home loan EMI (Hinjewadi 3BHK, ₹1.2 Cr loan at 8.5%): ₹1,04,000
• Car loan EMI: ₹18,000
• Term + health insurance premiums (monthly average): ₹6,000
• School fees (monthly average ₹3.6L/year): ₹30,000
• Utilities, groceries, fuel: ₹45,000
• Medical contingency reserve: ₹15,000
• Minimum lifestyle (subscriptions, eating out, etc., heavily trimmed): ₹20,000
• Total burn: ₹2,38,000/month

Runway excluding EPF: ₹18,00,000 ÷ ₹2,38,000 = 7.6 months Runway including full EPF partial withdrawal: 18.6 months

Plan against the first number, not the second. Tapping EPF should be a sequenced decision rather than a Day 1 move — you lose 8.25% compounding you cannot rebuy — and severance is taxable, arrives net of TDS, and is often inflated in offer-letter language. Any single unplanned expense (a parent's medical emergency, a tuition revision, a damaged appliance) eats one to two months of buffer fast.

7.6 months is inside the target band but not comfortable. It means the lender conversation in week three is not optional, and it means the EPF housing-category withdrawal against the home loan is worth understanding before you need it.

To run the numbers for your own profile — current EMIs, severance scenarios, varying burn rates — use our EMI calculator to model tenure-extension scenarios and the SIP calculator to see how SIP changes affect long-term corpus during a transition.

Magarpatta and Kharadi profiles

The same calculation in Magarpatta or Kharadi, with a 2-3 BHK and an EMI of ₹55,000-₹85,000, typically yields several months more on similar liquidity. Baner and Balewadi, with EMIs of ₹70K-₹1.3L, compress back toward the Hinjewadi profile.

The 6-month threshold

Below 6 months you are in active risk territory. Above 9, you have room to be selective about the next role. The 6-to-9 band is where EMI restructuring, EPF sequencing and lifestyle decisions need to happen — not earlier, not later.

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Part 1B: Audit your severance against the Labour Codes

Before you plan around the severance number, check whether it clears the statutory floor. Since the four Labour Codes came into force in November 2025, a retrenchment package is no longer purely a matter of company policy.

Under section 70 of the Industrial Relations Code (which replaced section 25F of the old Industrial Disputes Act — any guide citing 25F is citing a repealed provision), a retrenched worker with at least one year of continuous service is entitled to:

Entitlement	Detail
Notice	One month's written notice stating reasons, or wages in lieu
Compensation	15 days' average pay per completed year of continuous service; any part-year over 6 months counts as a full year
Re-Skilling Fund	Employer contributes 15 days' wages, credited to your account within 45 days — over and above compensation

Average pay uses the last three calendar months, with the daily wage as (basic + DA + retention allowance) ÷ 26. A Hinjewadi engineer with 8 years 8 months of service and an average daily wage of ₹1,200 rounds to 9 years: 15 × 9 × ₹1,200 = ₹1,62,000, plus notice pay, plus ₹18,000 to the re-skilling fund.

Two timelines apply regardless: full and final settlement within two working days of exit, and gratuity within 30 days, with interest owed on delay.

The caveat that matters for mid-senior roles

Whether any of this applies to you turns on whether you meet the Code's definition of a "worker" — which excludes those employed in a managerial or administrative capacity, and those in a supervisory capacity above a wage threshold. A team lead or engineering manager on ₹40 lakh may fall outside the definition entirely, in which case section 70 gives them nothing and the severance is whatever the contract says. State rules are also still being notified unevenly, so entitlement can differ by state of employment.

Treat the table above as what to check your termination letter against, not as a guaranteed entitlement. Where the arithmetic looks short, that is a conversation for an employment lawyer — not a financial planner and not your former HR team.

One related change worth noting: the new wage definition requires basic pay and DA to be at least 50% of total remuneration. For typical IT salary structures, which are heavily allowance-weighted, this raises the base on which gratuity and PF are computed — quietly increasing what you are owed on exit.

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Part 2: The debt ladder — what to clear, what to keep

Severance arrives as a lump sum. The instinct to "wipe out the home loan" is emotionally satisfying and almost always wrong during uncertainty. Liquidity beats interest savings until you have re-employment certainty.

Priority order for debt repayment

1. Credit card outstanding (36-42% APR) — clear in full immediately. There is no scenario where carrying a balance during unemployment is correct.
2. Personal loans (12-20% APR) — accelerate or close; floating-rate ones typically carry no prepayment penalty.
3. Consumer durable loans / BNPL — close them out. Small balances, but they clutter credit reports.
4. Car loan (9-11% APR) — service as scheduled; the cash matters more than the rate.
5. Home loan (7.35-8.5% for well-rated borrowers) — service as scheduled. Do not prepay until you have re-employment certainty plus 9 months of buffer.

The math: home loan interest is among the cheapest debt available in India today (PSU banks like SBI and Bank of Baroda starting around 7.10-7.50% for high-CIBIL borrowers as of mid-2026; private banks 7.70-8.75%). Even after losing the interest deduction available under the old regime, the post-tax cost is modest. Liquidity, on the other hand, is irreplaceable during unemployment.

Do not plan around a rate cut. The RBI has held the repo at 5.25% through 2026 — the August meeting was the fourth consecutive hold — and most forecasters expect a flat trajectory for the rest of the year. What you control is your spread, your tenure, and how early you make the call.

When to talk to your home lender

If your runway dips below 6 months or if a single month's EMI is more than 40% of your monthly burn rate, contact your lender proactively. The conversation works dramatically better when you're current on payments than when you're 30 days delinquent.

Options to ask about, in order of preference:

Option	What it does	Best for
Tenure extension	Reduces EMI by extending repayment period	Cash flow stress expected to last 6+ months. Permanent EMI reduction, principal cost increases slightly.
Step-up EMI / step-down period	6-12 months of reduced EMI, then catch-up	Confident of re-employment within a year
Moratorium / payment holiday	3-6 months no EMI; interest accrues	Severe short-term liquidity crunch; expensive in interest terms
Balance transfer to a cheaper lender	Reduces ongoing EMI via lower rate	Only if your credit profile is still strong (CIBIL 750+) and you have months remaining of payment history
Home loan top-up	Borrowing against built-up equity at home loan rate	Far cheaper than a personal loan if you anticipate prolonged unemployment

A tenure extension is almost always the right first ask — a 5-year extension on a 15-year remaining tenure can cut EMI by 20-25%, without the interest cost of a moratorium. Run your specific numbers on our EMI calculator first, so you walk in with a target rather than a general appeal.

Lenders in 2026 are pragmatic about IT-sector layoffs because they are seeing many of them. They will generally cooperate on tenure extension and moratorium for customers in good standing. They will not write down principal, waive accrued interest, or extend unsecured credit during unemployment.

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Part 3: EPF — the bridge, and the rule that changed

The Employees' Provident Fund is the most underused and most misused bridge fund in an IT professional's portfolio. Both extremes cost money — and the rule most people are working from is now the wrong one.

The "75% after one month" rule no longer exists

It came from paragraph 68HH of the EPF Scheme, 1952. On 29 June 2026 that scheme was superseded outright by the EPF Scheme, 2026 (G.S.R. 525(E), under the Code on Social Security, 2020), and the one-month unemployment advance was not carried forward. Any article, HR deck or calculator still stating that rule — and many do — is describing a repealed framework.

What replaced it is two separate routes. Which one applies depends on how you left, not how long you have been out of work.

Route 1: Full withdrawal

Paragraph 49(1) makes your entire accumulation payable with no waiting period in specific situations, including termination of service in the case of individual or mass retrenchment, and termination under a mutually agreed VRS.

There is a complication. The same paragraph separately lists a member discharged and paid retrenchment compensation under the Industrial Relations Code among contingencies requiring two months of continuous unemployment. Both clauses plausibly describe a laid-off IT professional, and they carry different timelines.

We are not going to tell you which one covers you — that is a determination for EPFO, and the stakes justify asking precisely. Take your termination letter to your regional office, or raise it through the portal grievance route, and ask which clause of paragraph 49(1) applies to your exit. The answer is the difference between your full corpus now and a two-month wait.

If neither applies — an ordinary resignation, or a job loss not structured as retrenchment — paragraph 49(2) governs, and full withdrawal requires 12 months of continuous unemployment. This is where the widely-quoted "12 months" actually belongs. It is not a second tranche following a 75% withdrawal.

Route 2: Partial withdrawal, available throughout

This is the route most readers will actually use, and it does not depend on unemployment at all. Paragraph 46 requires a minimum balance of 25% of total accumulations — employee share, employer share and interest — to remain. Withdrawals draw against the rest, which is where the 75% figure genuinely comes from: a structural retention rule, not an unemployment entitlement.

Purpose	Frequency
Illness (self or family)	Not capped
Education (self or family)	Up to 10 times
Marriage (self or family)	Up to 5 times
Housing (purchase, construction, home loan repayment, improvement)	Up to 5 times
Special circumstances — no reason required	Twice per financial year

Two of these matter enormously in a Pune layoff. The special circumstances category needs no stated reason, twice a financial year. And the housing category explicitly covers home loan repayment — directly relevant when the Hinjewadi EMI is the pressure point. The qualifying condition for both is 12 months of membership, not 12 months of unemployment, which every mid-career professional satisfies.

Minimum partial withdrawal is ₹1,000, and withdrawal counts reset fresh from the commencement of the 2026 Scheme.

Tax treatment of EPF withdrawal

• 5+ years of continuous service: withdrawal is fully tax-free. Continuous service counts across transferred accounts, not just your latest employer.
• Less than 5 years: TDS at 10% (with PAN) or 20% (without PAN) on amounts above ₹50,000; the amount also gets added to your taxable income for the year.

For most mid-senior IT professionals with 8-15+ years of service, EPF withdrawal is the most tax-efficient large bridge fund available. The 8.25% declared rate for FY 2025-26 is genuinely hard to replace — which is why this should be a sequenced decision rather than a Day 1 panic move.

Filing, and what you can demand

Claims go through the EPFO portal with Aadhaar OTP authentication, and KYC must be complete — Aadhaar, PAN and bank account all seeded to UAN. Do not go looking for Form 19, 10C or 31; the 2026 Scheme prescribes no member claim form numbers, so any guide citing them predates the current scheme. Auto-settlement now covers claims up to ₹5 lakh, so a verified claim can settle in days.

Two levers worth knowing. Settlement is due within 20 days of a complete claim, with any deficiency communicated inside the same window — and where the Commissioner delays beyond that without solid reason, penal interest at 12% is chargeable, recoverable from the Commissioner's salary. Citing that in a written grievance tends to concentrate minds.

One unrelated trap to fix while you are in the portal: an e-nomination filed before marriage is automatically void once you marry. Exit is when most people finally open their EPF account, which makes it the moment to refile.

Use it as the second tier, not the first

Cash, liquid funds and short-term FDs first. Then the partial withdrawal route — special circumstances, or the housing category against the home loan. Full withdrawal only once you have established which paragraph 49 clause covers your exit.

The cost side is simple: money withdrawn cannot be redeposited, and 8.25% tax-free compounding is the highest-quality fixed-income return available to a salaried Indian. Replacing it later through PPF (₹1.5L annual ceiling, 15-year lock-in) or debt funds (taxed at slab) is meaningfully harder.

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Part 4: The health insurance cliff — handle it in the first 30 days

The single most-missed item in laid-off IT professionals' financial planning is what happens to health insurance. Group cover ends on the last working day (sometimes end of notice period — verify with HR). If you don't have an individual policy already in place, you have a tight window to act.

Migration vs. portability — know the difference

IRDAI provides two distinct rights. Migration moves you from a group policy to an individual one with the same insurer — usually easier, since they already hold your data. Portability moves you to a different insurer, with more flexibility on features but a fresh application and underwriting.

Either way, you carry forward accumulated waiting-period credits for pre-existing conditions, which is the entire point. A 38-year-old on group cover for 8 years has effectively served the standard 3-4 year waiting period. Buying a fresh individual policy instead restarts that clock.

The 45-day rule, and what porting does not guarantee

Apply to the new (or same) insurer at least 45 days before group cover ends. In a layoff, where the timeline is compressed, initiate immediately on receiving termination notice.

Two caveats worth knowing before you rely on this. Porting is generally permitted at renewal rather than mid-term, which is why the timing matters so much. And the new insurer underwrites you afresh — portability preserves your waiting-period credit, but it does not guarantee acceptance on the same terms, and the premium can be loaded or exclusions added.

If you've already passed your last working day without porting, you can still apply — but underwriting becomes less favourable and some accumulated credit may be at risk.

The economics changed in your favour

Since 22 September 2025, individual and family floater health premiums are GST-exempt, where they previously attracted 18%. Employer group policies still attract GST. Expect roughly a 10-12% reduction against pre-exemption pricing across individual, family floater and senior citizen plans.

This does not make individual cover cheaper than group cover — it isn't. But it narrows the gap by about a tenth, which matters both for the porting decision now and for the standing advice below.

The parents-on-cover problem

If your group policy includes parents, porting them individually is often impossible or prohibitively expensive due to age — the most expensive gap most laid-off IT professionals discover too late. The options are dedicated senior citizen health policies (higher premiums, but available above 65), top-up plans on existing individual cover, and critical illness cover as a lower-premium backstop. There is no clean answer; the least-bad is usually a senior citizen plan plus critical illness as backstop.

The baseline rule for the future

If you take one structural lesson from this article: always have a baseline individual health policy alongside any employer group cover, taken in normal times. The premium is modest, and it eliminates this entire crisis vector at the moment you can least afford to deal with it.

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Part 5: The hidden safety net (and what's not your safety net)

What's not your safety net: ESIC

Many IT professionals encounter mentions of ESIC and the Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana, which provides up to 50% of daily wages post-unemployment. It is real, but ESIC eligibility is capped at monthly gross wages of ₹21,000 (₹25,000 for persons with disabilities). The vast majority of Pune IT professionals earn well above this and are not covered.

Mentioning ESIC here only to be clear: it is not your safety net. Your own EPF corpus, and any Labour Code retrenchment entitlement you qualify for, are.

What is your safety net: liquidity sequencing

The actual safety net is the order in which you tap different pools of capital, not any single government scheme. The principle: always liquidate the most easily replaceable money first.

Tier	Source	Why this order
1	Cash + savings accounts	Zero loss, zero tax event, immediate
2	Liquid mutual funds + short-term FDs	Minimal exit cost; FDs broken early lose 0.5-1% interest
3	EPF withdrawal (route depends on exit — see Part 3)	Tax-free if 5+ years of service; loses 8.25% future compounding
4	Severance proceeds	Already taxed (mostly); use after arrears relief planning
5	Existing debt mutual fund holdings	Taxed at slab now (post-2023 budget); low volatility, accessible
6	Equity mutual fund redemption	LTCG 12.5% above ₹1.25L; sells low if market is correcting
7	RSU sale	Concentrated risk, foreign asset, holding-period sensitive

For most laid-off IT professionals in Pune with 8+ years of service, tiers 1-4 cover 12+ months of runway. Tiers 5-7 should not enter the conversation unless unemployment has materially extended.

A note on NPS: it is deliberately excluded from the tier list. Leave a corporate NPS corpus untouched — premature exit before 60 forces a punitive 20% lump sum plus 80% mandatory annuity, against up to 80% lump sum at normal exit under the December 2025 PFRDA amendments. If your next role doesn't offer NPS, submit Form ISS-1 to your POP-SP to convert from Corporate to All Citizen; the PRAN stays the same and ₹1,000 a year keeps it active. If runway is genuinely stressed after tiers 1-4, partial withdrawal (up to 25% of your own contributions, tax-free) is the lever — not full exit. Our NPS exit rules guide has the full framework.

What about lifestyle adjustments?

Cutting subscriptions is necessary but not transformative. A realistic Hinjewadi household can shed ₹15-30K of monthly burn quickly — food delivery, premium subscriptions, lifestyle services, unused gym memberships. Meaningful at the margin, but no substitute for the structural decisions (EMI restructuring, EPF sequencing, insurance porting) that determine whether the runway is 9 months or 18.

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Part 6: The first 30 days — a checklist

A compressed action sequence for the first month after termination:

Week 1

• Confirm last working day, notice period buyout, and severance breakdown in writing — itemised, not as a single lump figure.
• Check the severance against the Labour Code floor (Part 1B). Full and final settlement is due within two working days of exit; gratuity within 30 days.
• Verify group health cover end date with HR. Initiate migration or portability immediately.
• Reconcile your UAN portal: confirm Aadhaar, PAN, bank account are all seeded and KYC is verified.
• If you have a corporate NPS account: download your transaction statement and current corpus value from the CRA portal (Protean NSDL at cra-nsdl.com or KFintech at npscra.kfintech.com). Do not initiate withdrawal — see the do-not-touch note in Part 5.
• Run the runway calculation. Share the number with your spouse.

Week 2

• Engage a Chartered Accountant if severance exceeds one month of base pay or you have RSU exposure — see the severance and RSU guide.
• Cancel discretionary subscriptions; set a household burn-rate budget against the runway target.

Week 3

• Contact your lender about tenure extension. Frame it as proactive planning, not crisis.
• Close out credit card balances and small high-interest debt.
• Reduce — don't pause — SIPs if cash flow is genuinely tight; the zero-increment guide has the reasoning.

Week 4

• If the search is extending and tier 1-2 funds are thinning, file the EPF partial withdrawal claim on the portal — and if you have not already, establish with EPFO which paragraph 49 clause covers your exit.
• Confirm that all subscriptions, bank standing instructions, and auto-debits reflect the new burn budget.
• Set a 30-day review checkpoint: re-run the runway calculation, re-assess job search progress, decide whether any tier-3 or tier-4 actions need acceleration.

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Frequently asked questions

What should an IT professional in Pune do with their investments immediately after a layoff?

Calculate your true runway first — total severance plus accessible liquid funds, divide by fixed monthly burn (EMIs, insurance, school fees, essentials). Aim for 6-9 months minimum. Do not panic-sell long-term equity. Use liquid funds as your first bridge and EPF as the tier behind them, after establishing which EPF Scheme 2026 withdrawal route your exit falls under. Raise health insurance porting with the new insurer well before group cover ends.

How much EPF can I withdraw after a layoff in 2026?

It depends on how you exited. Under the EPF Scheme, 2026, retrenchment appears among the triggers for full withdrawal with no waiting period — but a separate clause covering discharge with retrenchment compensation carries a two-month wait, so confirm with EPFO which applies. An ordinary resignation means 12 months of continuous unemployment before full withdrawal. Partial withdrawals stay available throughout, capped at 75% since a 25% minimum balance must remain.

Can I get a moratorium on my Hinjewadi or Magarpatta home loan if I am laid off?

Most lenders offer a 3-6 month EMI moratorium on hardship grounds, but this is rarely advertised. Contact your relationship manager proactively — before missing a payment — and ask about both moratorium and tenure extension options. Interest continues to accrue during a moratorium, so it is a liquidity tool, not a cost-saving one. Tenure extension reduces EMI permanently and is often the better mechanism if cash flow stress will last beyond 6 months.

Should I keep paying my SIPs during unemployment?

Yes, ideally at a reduced amount rather than pausing entirely. Markets often correct alongside tech-sector layoffs, which means a SIP pause coincides with the lowest NAV opportunity in years. If cash flow demands action, reduce SIPs to a minimum sustainable level (₹5,000-₹10,000 per fund) instead of stopping them. Preserving the mechanism matters more than the amount during a 6-9 month transition.

What happens to my group health insurance when I am laid off?

Group health cover typically ends on your last working day. IRDAI rules let you migrate to an individual policy with the same insurer, or port to a different one, preserving accumulated waiting-period credits for pre-existing conditions. Raise it around 45 days ahead — porting is generally permitted at renewal rather than mid-term, and the new insurer underwrites afresh. Since September 2025 individual premiums are GST-exempt, narrowing the cost gap against group cover.

Should I use my emergency fund or break long-term FDs first?

Liquidate in this order: savings accounts, liquid mutual funds, short-term FDs, then EPF unemployment withdrawal, then severance proceeds, then debt mutual fund holdings, and only as a last resort equity mutual funds or RSUs. Long-term FDs broken before maturity attract penalty interest (typically 0.5-1%) and lose tax efficiency. Most IT professionals with 8+ years of work history have enough in the earlier tiers to avoid touching long-term investments entirely.

Does ESIC apply to laid-off IT professionals in Pune?

No. ESIC eligibility is capped at monthly gross wages of ₹21,000 (₹25,000 for persons with disabilities). The vast majority of IT professionals in Pune earn well above this threshold and are not covered. The Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana, which provides up to 50% of daily wages post-unemployment under ESIC, is not your safety net. Your EPF corpus and any Labour Code retrenchment entitlement are the relevant mechanisms.

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Key takeaways

• Runway is the foundation: 6-9 months of essential burn covered by liquid capital is the minimum target before any other decision.
• The Labour Codes give retrenchment a statutory floor — one month's notice, 15 days' pay per year of service, a re-skilling fund contribution, settlement within two working days. Whether a mid-senior IT role qualifies as a "worker" is genuinely unsettled; check your letter against it either way.
• The EPF Scheme, 2026 dropped the "75% after one month of unemployment" rule entirely. Retrenchment may open the full corpus immediately; ordinary resignation means a 12-month wait for full withdrawal, with partial withdrawals available throughout. Establish which route applies to you.
• Home loan should be the last debt you prepay during uncertainty. Talk to your lender about tenure extension before missing a payment.
• Health insurance migration or portability must be initiated within 45 days, ideally before group cover ends. Pre-existing condition waiting periods reset if you wait too long.
• ESIC does not apply to most IT professionals. Your EPF corpus and any Labour Code entitlement are the real safety net.
• Liquidate in tier order (cash → liquid funds → EPF → severance → debt MF → equity); most IT professionals never need to touch tiers 5-7.
• Reduce SIP amounts to minimum levels rather than pausing — preserve the mechanism during the correction that typically accompanies tech-sector layoffs.

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Conclusion

The first 30 days after a Pune IT layoff determine whether the next 12 months are a managed transition or a scramble. The mechanics aren't complicated, but the sequence matters — runway first, insurance porting in week one, the lender conversation in week three, EPF only once you know which route applies to you.

What separates professionals who come through with their long-term wealth intact is rarely the size of the severance. It's the discipline to make structural moves in the right order, before the panic-sell instinct kicks in.

For the broader view, the pillar checklist is the anchor; for severance tax and RSU handling, the severance and RSU guide.

If you want a personalised plan pulling this together — runway, SIPs, retirement projection, tax, insurance gaps — our free Artha Auto-Plan generates a PDF and Excel workbook in 10-15 minutes.

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Content review schedule: This article was last reviewed on August 12, 2026. Next scheduled review: February 2027, or sooner if any of the following affect the rules cited — EPFO circulars or amendments to the EPF Scheme, 2026, state notifications of Labour Code rules, IRDAI health insurance circulars, GST Council decisions on insurance, RBI repo rate changes, or Union Budget amendments. If you spot information that appears outdated, please reach out so we can update it.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any financial product. Tax laws and regulations may change; please verify with a qualified Chartered Accountant before acting on tax-related guidance. Meta Investment is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN: 129322). Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme-related documents carefully. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. For personalised financial planning, consult a CFP professional or a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser.