Monday, October 25, 2010
S I P (Systematic Investment Plan) - TREND AMONG THE FIRST TIME INVESTORS, making a strong case for Mutual Fund Industry
In the recent past, especially post August 2009 (banning of entry load in Mutual Fund) media has bashed the MF industry many a times predominantly on net negative flow on equity funds despite remarkable market rallies. But if we closely analyze market data, there is a strong SIP movement fuelling up underneath this vulnerability. The new investors are taking SIP (systematic Investment Plan) way to create long term wealth.
Data from industry sources show that there has been consistent upward movement in the SIP folios in last one year in all Metro investors, Non metro cities (next top 25cities) and the smaller cities. The ticket size of average SIP has moved up from Rs. 2100 to Rs. 2200.
Micro SIP category (below Rs.1000, which is dominantly from semi urban and rural India) has seen a surge of 16% from the earlier 13% market share. Though the industry suffered a negative flow in equity funds, the financial year has seen a healthy growth trend with 3.24 Lakh new registrations.
Mutual Fund SIP – Beginners’ route to create a long term wealth
Systematic Investment Plan is a disciplined way of investing into mutual funds. Where in investors have option of investing a fixed amount of money in weekly, monthly or quarterly interval into a specific fund. It can be done by submitting dated cheques or ECS from a specified bank account (Electronic Clearing Systems - Used by banks for transferring fund from one account to another)
For eg. An investor investing as small as Rs. 1000/- per month making a total investment of Rs. 12, 000. Instead of investing Rs. 12,000 at one go, investors now have option of putting the amount in 12 equal installments.
And during volatile market movements, the cost of investment will be average and can see a consistent appreciation of the investment over long period of time.
Beginners’ first step of investment can start with Mutual Fund SIP. Here is why -
1. Small Installments - The new investors who do not have big money ready to invest and allocate in different things, can build their portfolio with a weekly/ monthly/ quarterly SIP over a long period of time. Eg . a ECS deduction of – 1000 per month make a investment of 12,000 in a year.
2. Disciplined Investing – The investors are seeing this an opportunity for a long-term investment as the amount needed for every installment is low and has the benefit of investing through a long span.
3. Beating the volatility of equity market– Investing equal amount every month (similar to saving in a recurring deposit) gives the investor a chance of averaging the risk of losing money through beating the short-term volatility by committing to a long-term disciplined investment.
But, we must look at few reasons why there is net negative outflow in last 1 year –
Reason 1. Advisors are less motivated to sell MF schemes as, as the easy brokerage has stopped coming in
Reason 2. Post market correction of 2008, the 2009-10 rally has made extra ordinary profits in many schemes, so the old investors are booking profits, which had grown multi folds over many years.
But yes, before investing, one should definitely choose the fund carefully.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Banning of entry load brought transparency in the Mutual Fund industry
Recent steps taken by Sebi to ban the entry load on MF purchase will attract more investors to capital market. Some regulations are yet to be formed to make the market more transparent; however this is definitely an important step towards the final goal.
Until August 2009, the MF investors were required to pay an entry load of 1-3% on every MF purchase. So if you were investing Rs. 1000 in an MF, at least Rs. 10-30 would go towards the advisory cost which the MF firm would collect to pay off the brokers. So, in effect you invested only Rs. 970- Rs. 990, which would see appropriate appreciation in due course. This obviously encouraged brokers to promote only those MFs that promised them the highest brokerage fee, thus ignoring the need for unbiased and informed advice.
Mutual Fund companies went into a panic mode when the entry load was banned by the protector of the Investors (sebi). Suddenly the chunk of thick pocket advisors moved away from selling mutual funds and turned towards money minting ULIPs (Unit linked insurance product). Then came the IRDA strict guidelines and caps on advisors spending- another wake up call !!!
One year down the line after many hustle –bustle investors have come back on their own or with the advisor’s guidance to save the Mutual Fund industry in India. This turn around is observed through the increasing number of SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) folios in the last one year. The ban of entry load has brought in the sense of responsibility in the advisors group as well as the Mutual Fund companies towards their fund performance, investors’ education to live up in this competitive market.
What just went wrong and again falling in place?
Mutual Fund is a product driven by group of investors to serve the best interest of investors through a transparent method to invest the pool of money to create long term wealth for the investors. In India, Mutual Fund is still in its nascent stage. Though Indian investors save more than 12% of their income, they are conservative in approach, they like to see consistency, predictability and transparency, where Mutual Fund though have tendency to give higher returns, can see a negative returns as well. In that scenario, when Indian equity market is growing 17% annual basis, still retail participation remained zilch. To increase investment in Mutual Funds, companies started paying handsome money to the investment advisors to push Mutual Fund products with more human touch. The greed of making money caught the advisors segment, who pushed the products with higher commission promised without paying much heed to the performance of the fund, credibility of the fund manager.
Things were good at the boom time, investors pumped in money, got returns on anything, but when market fell and crashed badly, thankfully SEBI woke up first to the investors’ cry and took the first step towards making Mutual Fund most competitive equity product. Indian economy is set to grow so as the market, then Indian Investors has all the right to get maximum benefit from the market.
So What Next !!
Now, through this stricter norms in all financial products, market is set to be more competitive and making it more level playing ground for the investors. Advisors are forced to do that extra bit of research to advice on good products, because they are gradually understanding the benefit of long term relations. The more steady the investors’ wealth grow, the better opportunity for the advisors and finally for the Indian Mutual Fund Industry as a whole. .
So, hail those laws and regulations which make Indian market more transparent, more regulated and most attractive in the world.
And Indian Investors – Smile On!!! :)
Until August 2009, the MF investors were required to pay an entry load of 1-3% on every MF purchase. So if you were investing Rs. 1000 in an MF, at least Rs. 10-30 would go towards the advisory cost which the MF firm would collect to pay off the brokers. So, in effect you invested only Rs. 970- Rs. 990, which would see appropriate appreciation in due course. This obviously encouraged brokers to promote only those MFs that promised them the highest brokerage fee, thus ignoring the need for unbiased and informed advice.
Mutual Fund companies went into a panic mode when the entry load was banned by the protector of the Investors (sebi). Suddenly the chunk of thick pocket advisors moved away from selling mutual funds and turned towards money minting ULIPs (Unit linked insurance product). Then came the IRDA strict guidelines and caps on advisors spending- another wake up call !!!
One year down the line after many hustle –bustle investors have come back on their own or with the advisor’s guidance to save the Mutual Fund industry in India. This turn around is observed through the increasing number of SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) folios in the last one year. The ban of entry load has brought in the sense of responsibility in the advisors group as well as the Mutual Fund companies towards their fund performance, investors’ education to live up in this competitive market.
What just went wrong and again falling in place?
Mutual Fund is a product driven by group of investors to serve the best interest of investors through a transparent method to invest the pool of money to create long term wealth for the investors. In India, Mutual Fund is still in its nascent stage. Though Indian investors save more than 12% of their income, they are conservative in approach, they like to see consistency, predictability and transparency, where Mutual Fund though have tendency to give higher returns, can see a negative returns as well. In that scenario, when Indian equity market is growing 17% annual basis, still retail participation remained zilch. To increase investment in Mutual Funds, companies started paying handsome money to the investment advisors to push Mutual Fund products with more human touch. The greed of making money caught the advisors segment, who pushed the products with higher commission promised without paying much heed to the performance of the fund, credibility of the fund manager.
Things were good at the boom time, investors pumped in money, got returns on anything, but when market fell and crashed badly, thankfully SEBI woke up first to the investors’ cry and took the first step towards making Mutual Fund most competitive equity product. Indian economy is set to grow so as the market, then Indian Investors has all the right to get maximum benefit from the market.
So What Next !!
Now, through this stricter norms in all financial products, market is set to be more competitive and making it more level playing ground for the investors. Advisors are forced to do that extra bit of research to advice on good products, because they are gradually understanding the benefit of long term relations. The more steady the investors’ wealth grow, the better opportunity for the advisors and finally for the Indian Mutual Fund Industry as a whole. .
So, hail those laws and regulations which make Indian market more transparent, more regulated and most attractive in the world.
And Indian Investors – Smile On!!! :)
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