In today's world, investors may often feel spoilt for choice amongst the many options available for investing. With a wide variety of mutual funds to choose from, they may struggle to find a suitable scheme for themselves.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort”
— John Ruskin, English writer and critic
Usually, when someone speaks about the quality of life, they refer to the quality of sleep, meals, exercise and work-life balance. The better invested they are in the above factors, the higher their quality of life can be. And, when someone describes the quality of the city they live in, they attribute it to the quality of infrastructure, housing, conveyance and the overall standard of living.
When investing in mutual funds, it's recommended to review your investment portfolio periodically. During such a portfolio review, the primary objective would be to identify mutual fund schemes that aren't performing well, and replace them if needed.
The investment portfolio may contain assets from different fund houses and across various Demat accounts. This is where a Consolidated Account Statement comes into the picture.
Exit load is a charge levied on mutual fund investments if the investor makes a redemption before the end of the specified holding period. It is not uniform across mutual fund schemes; it may differ per the chosen scheme's investment objective and time horizon.
Exit load is applied to protect investors' financial interests, discouraging them from redeeming their investments too early. It may bring an essence of discipline in investors to remain invested for the scheme's minimum applicable time period and reap reasonable returns.
With the evolution of financial markets, people may find themselves flooded with several options for investing their savings. These include fixed/recurring deposits, mutual funds, government bonds, stocks, etc. Among these options, investing in benchmark indices may pose a transparent investing strategy to equity investors, as they will be exposed towards a pre-defined basket of stocks.
The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is an industry association dedicated to nurturing and developing the Indian Mutual Fund Industry professionally and ethically. To protect and promote the interest of the mutual fund industry, Asset Management Companies (AMCs), and investors, AMFI aims to enhance and maintain professional standards for the AMCs and distributors through the Code of Conduct.
As per Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) guidelines, liquid funds are mutual funds that invest primarily in debt and money market securities with a maturity/residual maturity of up to 91 days. Accordingly, such funds may invest in money market securities like Certificates of Deposits (CDs), Treasury Bills (T-Bills), Commercial Papers, etc.
A type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, index funds are designed to follow certain pre-set rules. They are passive strategies, wherein the objective of the fund is to replicate the performance of underlying indices such as the Sensex, Nifty 50 or Nifty Next 50.
UTI Value Opportunities Fund is an open-ended equity scheme that follows a value investment strategy. The Fund follows the principle of intrinsic value — instead of the traditional multiple-based definition of value for portfolio management. Intrinsic value is ‘the discounted value of cash generated by a business during its remaining life’. The Fund has a flexible approach in terms of investing across the market cap spectrum based on available opportunities.
Mutual funds are increasingly becoming the preferred option for retail investors, as reflected by the consistent monthly SIP inflows. As per the latest data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), mutual funds received Rs. 12,976 crores through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) in September 2022 alone and Rs. 74,234 crores total in FY 2022-23 so far. (Source: AMFI)
