Basics of Mutual Funds

What is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is just the connecting bridge or a financial intermediary that allows a group of investors to pool their money together with a predetermined investment objective. The mutual fund will have a fund manager who is responsible for investing the gathered money into specific securities (stocks or bonds). When you invest in a mutual fund, you are buying units or portions of the mutual fund and thus on investing becomes a shareholder or unit holder of the fund.
Mutual funds are considered as one of the best available investments as compare to others they are very cost efficient and also easy to invest in, thus by pooling money together in a mutual fund, investors can purchase stocks or bonds with much lower trading costs than if they tried to do it on their own. But the biggest advantage to mutual funds is diversification, by minimizing risk & maximizing returns.

Diversification
Diversification is nothing but spreading out your money across available or different types of investments. By choosing to diversify respective investment holdings reduces risk tremendously up to certain extent.
The most basic level of diversification is to buy multiple stocks rather than just one stock. Mutual funds are set up to buy many stocks. Beyond that, you can diversify even more by purchasing different kinds of stocks, then adding bonds, then international, and so on. It could take you weeks to buy all these investments, but if you purchased a few mutual funds you could be done in a few hours because mutual funds automatically diversify in a predetermined category of investments (i.e. - growth companies, emerging or mid size companies, low-grade corporate bonds, etc).

BY STRUCTURE

Close-ended Fund/ Scheme :
A close-ended fund or scheme has a stipulated maturity period e.g. 3 years. The fund is open for subscription only during a specified period at the time of launch of the scheme. Investors can invest in the scheme at the time of the initial public

Growth / Equity Oriented Scheme :The aim of growth funds is to provide capital appreciation over the medium to long- term. Such schemes normally invest a major part of their corpus in equities. Such funds have comparatively high risks. These schemes provide different options to the investors like dividend option, capital appreciation, etc. and the investors may choose an option depending on their preferences. The investors must indicate the option in the application form. The mutual funds also allow the investors to change the options at a later date. Growth schemes are good for investors having a long-term outlook seeking appreciation over a period of time.

BY NATURE :
Equity fund : These funds invest a maximum part of their corpus into equities holdings. The structure of the fund may vary different for different schemes and the fund manager’s outlook on different stocks. The Equity Funds are sub-classified depending upon their investment
objective, as follows :
Diversified Equity Funds
Mid-Cap Funds
Sector Specific Funds
Tax Savings Funds (ELSS)
Equity investments are meant for a longer time horizon, thus Equity funds rank high on the risk-return matrix.

Debt funds : The objective of these Funds is to invest in debt papers. Government authorities, private companies, banks and financial institutions are some of the major issuers of debt papers. By investing in debt instruments, these funds ensure low risk and provide stable income to the investors. Debt funds are further classified as :
1. Gilt Funds :Invest their corpus in securities issued by Government, popularly known as Government of India debt papers. These Funds carry zero Default risk but are associated with Interest Rate risk. These schemes are safer as they invest in papers backed by Government.
2. Income Funds : Invest a major portion into various debt instruments such as bonds, corporate debentures and Government securities.
3. MIPs :Invests maximum of their total corpus in debt instruments while they take minimum exposure in equities. It gets benefit of both equity and debt market. These scheme ranks slightly high on the risk-return matrix when compared with other debt schemes
4. Short Term Plans (STPs): Meant for investment horizon for three to six months. These funds primarily invest in short term papers like Certificate of Deposits (CDs) and Commercial Papers (CPs). Some portion of the corpus is also invested in corporate debentures.
5. Liquid Funds :Also known as Money Market Schemes, These funds provides easy liquidity and preservation of capital. These schemes invest in short-term instruments like Treasury Bills, inter-bank call money market, CPs and CDs. These funds are meant for short-term cash management of corporate houses and are meant for an investment horizon of 1day to 3 months. These schemes rank low on risk-return matrix and are considered to be the safest amongst all categories of mutual funds
Balanced funds :As the name suggest they, are a mix of both equity and debt funds. They invest in both equities and fixed income securities, which are in line with pre-defined investment objective of the scheme. These schemes aim to provide investors with the best of both the worlds. Equity part provides growth and the debt part provides stability in returns.

Are investments in mutual fund units safe?

No stock market related investments can be termed safe with certainty as they are inherently risky. However, different funds have different risk profile which is stated in its objective. Funds which categorize themselves as low risk, invest generally in debt which is less risky than equity. Anyway, as mutual funds have access to services of expert fund managers, they are always safer than direct investment in the stock markets.

As my dividend receipts from mutual fund units were tax free under section 80 L, will I loose because of the new budget provision whereby my mutual f

The above statement is partially true. 10% tax on dividend paid is not applicable for funds which have invested more than 50% in equity for next three years. Hence, if you have invested in an equity scheme, you will not loose out for the time being. However, in case of debt funds, your statement is true.

What are the tax benefits for investing in mutual fund units?

Dividend income from mutual fund units will be exempt from income tax with effect from July 1, 1999. Further, investors can get rebate from tax under section 88 of Income Tax Act, 1961 by investing in Equity Linked Saving Schemes of mutual funds. Further benefits are also available under section 54EA and 54EB with regard to relief from long term capital gains tax in certain specified schemes.

After my first purchase, can I immediately enter another transaction?

After your first purchase you will not be permitted to transact for a period of 4 to 7 days depending on the processing time of the Mutual Funds' Registrar. After you place an investment order in any Mutual Fund for the first time a Folio Number is generated for that particular fund. Until the Folio number is generated you will not be allowed to place any further orders for that particular Mutual Fund. After the Folio Number is generated you can place any number of order in any schemes of the Mutual Fund.In the case of Franklin Templeton MF and Birla Sun Life MF, the Folio Number is generated for each scheme offered by the MF. Hence the processing time would be for each scheme of the Mutual Fund. Suppose if you place an order for a Liquid Fund, then a folio number is generated for that scheme only and to place an order for the first time in a balanced fund you will have again wait till a new folio number is generated.

Is there a minimum transaction amount for each scheme?

As decided by the fund, there is a minimum transaction amount indicated against each scheme. You will get to see the minimum transaction amount in the Place Order screen.

Do I need to allocate funds for investing in Mutual Funds?

Yes, just as in the secondary market, you will need to allocate funds for the purpose of investing in Mutual Funds. Under the Modify Allocation option you would have a separate section for allocating money for Mutual Funds. Also the funds which are allocated for investments in Mutual Fund will not be allowed for transactions in the secondary market.

Who are the issuers of Mutual funds in India?

Unit Trust of India was the first mutual fund which began operations in 1964. Other issuers of Mutual funds are Public sector banks like SBI, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Institutions like IDBI, ICICI, GIC, LIC, Foreign Institutions like Alliance, Morgan Stanley, Templeton and Private financial companies like Kothari Pioneer, DSP Merrill Lynch, Sundaram, Kotak Mahindra, Cholamandalam etc.

Is there any minimum lock-in period for my units?

There is no lock-in period in the case of open-ended funds. However in the case of tax saving funds a minimum lock-in period is applicable. The lock-in period for different tax saving schemes are as follows:
section
minimum lock-in period
U/s 88
3 yrs.
U/s 54EA
3 yrs.
U/s 54EB
7 yrs.

What is Shut-Out Period?

After the closure of the Initial Offer Period, on an ongoing basis, the Trustee reserves a right to declare Shut-Out period not exceeding 5 days at the end of each month/quarter/half-year, as the case may be, for the investors opting for payment of dividend under the respective Dividends Plans. The declaration of the Shut-Out period is envisaged to facilitate the AMC/the Registrar to determine the Units of the unitholders eligible for receipt of dividend under the various Dividend Options. Further, the Shut-Out period will also help in expeditious processing and despatch of dividend warrants. During the Shut-Out period investors may make purchases into the Scheme but the Purchase Price for subscription of units will be calculated using the NAV as at the end of the first Business Day in the following month/quarter/half-year as the case may be, depending on the Dividend Plan chosen by the investor. Therefore, if investments are made during the Shut -Out period, Units to the credit of the Unitholder's account will be created only on the first Business Day of the following month/ quarter/half year, as the case may be, depending on the dividend plan chosen by the investor. The Shut-Out period applies to new investors in the Scheme as well as to Unitholders making additional purchases of Units into an existing folio. The Trustee reserves the right to change the Shut-Out period and prescribe new Shut- Out period, from time to time.

As a new investor how do I select a particular scheme?

Choice of any scheme would depend to a large extent on the investor preferences. For an investor willing to undertake risks, equity funds would be the most suitable as they offer the maximum returns. Debt funds are suited for those investors who prefer regular income and safety. Gilt funds are best suited for the medium to long-term investors who are averse to risk. Balanced funds are ideal for medium- to long-term investors willing to take moderate risks. Liquid funds are ideal for Corporates, institutional investors and business houses who invest their funds for very short periods. Tax Saving Funds are ideal for those investors who want to avail tax benefits.An important aspect while selecting a particular scheme is the duration of the investment. Depending on your time horizon you can select a particular scheme. Besides all this, factors like promoter's image, objective of the fund and returns given by the funds on different schemes should also be taken into account while selecting a particular scheme.

It is very often said that Mutual Funds have performed badly. Please explain?

The performance of Mutual Funds is evaluated on the basis of absolute increase or decrease in its Net Asset Value (NAV). However a fund's performance should be evaluated on the basis of a comparison with the relevant indices and alternative instruments. The NAV varies from fund to fund. Therefore this argument is not entirely true. However some funds have performed poorly with their NAV quoting well below their original IPO price.

What are the rights that are available to a Mutual Fund holder?

As per SEBI Regulations on Mutual Funds, an investor is entitled to1. Receive Unit certificates or statements of accounts confirming your title within 6 weeks from the date your request for a unit certificate is received by the Mutual Fund.2. Receive information about the investment policies, investment objectives, financial position and general affairs of the scheme;3. Receive dividend within 42 days of their declaration and receive the redemption or repurchase proceeds within 10 days from the date of redemption or repurchase4. The trustees shall be bound to make such disclosures to the unit holders as are essential in order to keep them informed about any information which may have an adverse bearing on their investments. 5. 75% of the unit holders with the prior approval of SEBI can terminate the AMC of the fund.6. 75% of the unit holders can pass a resolution to wind-up the scheme. 7. An investor can send complaints to SEBI, who will take up the matter with the concerned Mutual Funds and follow up with them till they are resolved.

Besides the NAV, are there any other parameters which can be compared across different funds of the same category?

Besides Net Asset Value the following parameters should be considered while comparing the funds:
AVERAGE RETURNS An investor should look at the returns given by the fund over a period of time. Care should be taken to see whether all dividends and bonuses have been accounted for. The higher and more consistent the returns the better is the fund.
VOLATILITY In addition to the returns one should also look at the volatility of the returns given by the fund. Volatility is essentially the fluctuation of the returns about the mean return over a period of time. A fund giving consistent returns is better than a fund whose returns fluctuate a lot.
CORPUS SIZE A Large corpus is generally considered good because large funds have lower costs, as expenses are spread over large assets but at the same time a large corpus has some inefficiencies too. A large corpus may become unwieldy and thus difficult to manage.
PERFORMANCE VIS A VIS BENCHMARKS / OTHER SCHEMES An investor should not only look at the returns given by the scheme he has invested in but also compare it with benchmarks like the BSE Sensex, S & P Nifty, T-bill index etc depending on the asset class he has invested in. For a true picture it is advised that the returns should also be compared with the returns given by the other funds in the same category.
It is prudent to consider all the above-mentioned factors while comparing funds and not rely on any one of them in isolation.

How, and against what, should I benchmark the performance of a mutual fund ?

A Mutual Fund's performance can be benchmarked against other Mutual Funds of similar type - for example, the performance of a diversified equity fund should be compared to similar funds in the industry or against established market indices like the BSE Sensex or the NSE Nifty. One can also benchmark the fund against any other broad-based index for the particular asset class. The Investment Manager usually decides a benchmark index at the time of conceptualization of the scheme and this benchmark serves as a good tool for comparison.
The comparison period for benchmarking Mutual Fund schemes has to be carefully decided. Equity funds should be ideally compared over a 1-2 year horizon. Any comparison over a shorter period would be distorted by short term, volatile price movements. Similarly, the ideal comparison period for a debt fund would be 6-12 months while that for a liquid/money market fund would be 1-3 months.

Are returns from mutual funds guaranteed ?

Generally, Mutual Funds do not offer guaranteed returns to investors. Although, SEBI regulations allow Mutual Funds to offer guaranteed returns subject to the Fund meeting certain conditions, most Funds do not offer such guarantees. In case of a guaranteed return scheme, the sponsor or the AMC, guarantees a minimum level of return and makes good the difference if the actual returns are less than the guaranteed minimum. The name of the guarantor and the manner in which the guarantee shall be met must be disclosed in the offer document by the Mutual Fund. Investments in mutual funds are not guaranteed by the Government of India, the Reserve Bank of India or any other government body.

What is an asset management fee ?

The Asset Management Company (AMC) as the Investment Manager of the Mutual Fund charges a fee for portfolio management. The fee charged on an annual basis is calculated as a percentage of net assets under management.

Are mutual funds allowed to indulge in speculation / day trading ?

No, Mutual funds are not permitted to speculate. As per SEBI regulations, all trades done by mutual funds should be settled by delivery except derivative trades, which are settled in cash.

Who is a custodian ?

The custodian is responsible for the possession, handling and safekeeping of all securities purchased by the Mutual Fund.

What is an Asset Management Company (AMC) ?

Every Mutual Fund has an Asset Management Company (AMC) associated with it. The AMC is responsible for managing the investments for the various schemes operated by the Mutual Fund.
The Trust oversees the performance of the AMC. The AMC employs professionals to manage the funds. The AMC may be assisted by a custodian and a registrar.
AMCs are obliged to make investments in compliance with SEBI regulations.