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  THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING THROUGH A MUTUAL FUND  

 
 

Affordability

  Mutual funds allow you to invest small sums. For instance, if you want to buy a portfolio of blue chips of modest size, you should at least have a few lakhs of rupees. A mutual fund gives you the same portfolio for meager investment of Rs.1,000-5,000. A mutual fund can do that because it collects money from many people and it has a large corpus.
 

 

  Professional management  
  The major advantage of investing in a mutual fund is that you get a professional money manager to manage your investments for a small fee. You can leave the investment decisions to him and only have to monitor the performance of the fund at regular intervals.  
     
  Diversification  
  Considered the essential tool in risk management, mutual funds make it possible for even small investors to diversify their portfolio. A mutual fund can effectively diversify its portfolio because of the large corpus. However, a small investor cannot have a well-diversified portfolio because it calls for large investment. For example, a modest portfolio of 10 bluechip stocks calls for a few  thousands.  
     
  Convenience  
  Mutual funds offer tailor-made solutions like systematic investment plans and systematic withdrawal plans to investors, which is very convenient to investors. Investors also do not have to worry about investment decisions, they do not have to deal with brokerage or depository, etc. for buying or selling of securities. Mutual funds also offer specialized schemes like retirement plans, children’s plans, industry specific schemes, etc. to suit personal preference of investors. These schemes also help small investors with asset allocation of their corpus. It also saves a lot of paper work.  
       
  Cost effectiveness    
  A small investor will find that the mutual fund route is a cost-effective method (the AMC fee is normally 2.5%) and it also saves a lot of transaction cost as mutual funds get concession from brokerages. Also, the investor gets the service of a financial professional for a very small fee. If he were to seek a financial advisor's help directly, he will end up paying significantly more for investment advice. Also, he will need to have a sizeable corpus to offer for investment management to be eligible for an investment adviser’s services.    
       
  Liquidity    
  You can liquidate your investments within 3 to 5 working days (mutual funds dispatch redemption cheques speedily and also offer direct credit facility into your bank account i.e. Electronic Clearing Services).    
       
  Tax breaks    
  You do not have to pay any taxes on dividends issued by mutual funds. You also have the advantage of capital gains taxation. Tax-saving schemes and pension schemes give you the added advantage of benefits under section 88.    
       
  Transparency    
  Mutual funds offer daily NAVs of schemes, which help you to monitor your investments on a regular basis. They also send quarterly newsletters, which give details of the portfolio, performance of schemes against various benchmarks, etc. They are also well regulated and Sebi monitors their actions closely.    
       
       
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