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Saturday, June 2, 2018

Mutual Fund Reclassification


Regarding Mutual Fund (MF) Re-classification:

Mutual Funds are being reclassified as per the direction of the SEBI circular dated 6 October, 2017 for the following reasons:

Lack of proper definition of large cap/mid cap/small cap;

Too many similar schemes even within a fund house;

Balanced funds are not balanced; and 

Ambiguity about capital protection schemes.

The re-classification features are:

·         Merging schemes to comply with new regulations changing the attributes of existing schemes if necessary; eliminating overlapping products; to ensure that investors have better comparison and choice to ease decision-making.

·         SEBI has specified broadly 5 categories: equity funds, debt funds, hybrid funds {conservative (25:75), balance (40:60 or 50:50) and aggressive (equity 65% to 80%), solution oriented funds (for retirement, child education etc.) and other funds. The mutual fund houses have to reclassify with this categories to reduce confusions to the inventors.

·      The new rule requires “investment objective”, “investment strategy” and benchmark index for each scheme.

·       Large caps funds can buy stocks of firms of top 100 stocks in the market capitalization. Mid cap funds can buy stocks from firms that are between 101 to 250th in the market capitalization. Small cap funds can buy stock that fall from 251st onward
.
·        Equity/Debt ratio is specified as 50:50 for balanced funds to get approvals hereinafter.

·         Benchmark index to be modified to fit new categories.

·     Removing ambiguity in capital protection schemes. (fixed income and capital appreciations)

·         To specify lock in period for solutions oriented schemes.


Impact on the investors in Mutual fund: 

As an investor in Mutual Fund kindly beware that merger schemes may involve some cost, check and decide whether to stay or exit from the existing scheme.

Check whether the new reclassification is aligned to your investment goals and Risk-Return expectations.

Analyst’s remarks that short term inconvenience may be experienced but in the long run this reclassification is expected to be beneficial to the investors………
.................@ps June 2018


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