Update your investments via MF websites, factsheets

Bekxy Kuriakose

For the retail investor, mutual funds may often look daunting with the plethora of data and information that floats around in today’s digital age. However, any savvy investor needs to know how his/her funds are doing in terms of performance and the portfolio of the funds he or she is invested in. Even if you have a distributor who advises you, it is still preferable to remain independently updated on the status of your investments. Investors should actively monitor their portfolios and make changes if required over time. This is the only way to remain on top in an ever changing complex world.

So if one has to set out on one’s own where can one find reliable data and that too available in a hassle-free manner at no expense?

Here two tools can give you all the information required to your fund’s investments:

• The first one is the fund website. At first glance when you go to your fund’s website, it may look complicated or confusing. This is especially so since the look and feel of websites differ from company to company. However, on closer inspection you will find many similarities. There is also a lot of information that mutual funds have to put on their website as part of SEBI regulatory requirements as well. Here is a quick list of must-have information you can get from the website: Customer contact numbers, including toll free numbers. Many mutual funds also offer facility of live chat in addition to email to address customer complaints and queries. Branch details are also given in case you need to visit to get issues sorted out. Details of MF’s presence on social media and their apps which can be downloaded are also given.
• Online investing: All mutual fund websites give the facility of online investing be it for the first time MF investors or for existing investors. The facility can also be used to check your investment and unit details, generate account statement, give redemption or switch requests and update bank details, etc.For new investors, SEBI has prepared a list of FAQs which has answers to questions like what is a mutual fund, history of mutual funds, what is NAV etc. which most MF websites carry and is a useful piece of info. Apart from this, many websites have a host of information and features usually under a tab called Investor Corner or Investor Education or Learning Centre and carry articles, tax reckoners, newsletters you can subscribe to and even videos. On casual observation, one gets to see that sometimes the basics are not clear, many investors have no clue whether the fund they have invested in is equity or debt-oriented, what is difference between SIP or lump sum or how to do asset allocation and choose funds. Hence starting with the basics and getting your fundamentals in place is very important.
• Statutory disclosures: These are mandatory disclosures that a mutual fund is required to put on their website. In my opinion, these can be useful for a more seasoned investor who is quite well acquainted with the functioning of mutual funds and is an active investor. Usually, the section is marked separately under statutory disclosures or downloads. These would include financials and accounts of the asset management company, monthly portfolios in excel, SID (Scheme Information Document), valuation policy, disclosure of asset under management, disclosure of executive remuneration etc.
• Fund factsheet: This is one of the most important piece of communication that comes from the fund house and is meant for investors. All mutual funds publish factsheet on the schemes they manage on a monthly basis. Typically by 15th of a month, factsheet pertaining to the previous month gets uploaded on the website.

Why is a factsheet important and what should one look in it for?

Factsheets usually begin with an update from the CEO of the fund house and an update on the equity and fixed income markets for the month.

Apart from this, the most important data is the scheme-wise portfolios with details like holdings, sector exposure, rating, average maturity, YTM (yield to maturity), expense ratio, AUM, details of the portfolio manager and performance vis-a-vis benchmark. The last factor is probably the best one to determine the performance of your scheme.

There would also be a page where at a glance you can get all the basic details of the fund like entry/exit load, min application size, plans available, etc.

I hope the pointers above will help new and seasoned investors to get to know more about mutual funds and make better decisions on their investments.

The writer is Head – Fixed Income, Principal Mutual Fund. The views expressed in this article are his own