Vipin Khandelwal

Mutual Fund benchmarks: What do they tell you?

May 13, 2016November 5, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

Do you know what is the benchmark of the following mutual fund schemes?

If you are wondering what a benchmark is, it is an index against which the fund compares its performance. For example, a mutual fund would say that it is going to benchmark against the BSE Sensex, the bellwether index of 30 most liquid stocks. With the fund management skills, it would do better than the Sensex; means it will deliver better returns than the Sensex.

Every mutual fund scheme chooses its own benchmark.

Pension Plans: Wolf in sheep’s clothing?

November 2, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

I started investing in HDFC Pension Champion from Year 2010 for sum of Rs 1,50,000 per annum. I have completed 5 years of investment and I see the returns as of today is @ 8.02%. I stopped investing from this financial year, as the returns are less than the normal FD rates. I am thinking to invest in Mutual funds instead of ULIP.

I understand from your previous articles that, if I wish to surrender the policy no taxes to be paid and no reversals of 80C deductions as the invested period was 5 years.

The above note is what a reader (I will call him Rajesh) sent to me recently.

I believe that you or someone you know also owns a pension plan. We have a few lessons to learn here. First, some basics.

What are pension plans and how do they work? – The Sheep’s clothing

Why did I become a fee-only financial planner?

November 2, 2015October 31, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

I am feeling happy today and I want to share the reason with you. I just received my certificate of becoming a ‘Registered Investment Adviser‘ from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Vipin Khandelwal - SEBI Registered Investment Adviser

It had been a work in progress for long. Finally, it’s here. It allows me to practice as an Investment Adviser or Financial Planner.

If you are wondering as to what’s so special about having a SEBI registration, FYI, without a registration, SEBI does not allow anyone to represent himself/herself as a financial planner, advisor, investment advisor or any with other name and offering any such services.

Actually SEBI brought out SEBI ‘Investment Advisers’ Regulations 2013, under which this registration is mandatory for anyone who wants to practice as one of the afore mentioned titles.

Let me take you through a quick journey of how does one get registered as an Investment Adviser with SEBI.

Your Ultimate Money & Investing Checklist

October 28, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

Lately I have been receiving several questions on “where do I invest xyz amount?”. Typically, the sender wants to know the funds for starting an SIP or making a lump sum investment in mutual funds.

The issue is that this approach is half-baked. There is an attempt to jump straight to investments not understanding that there are prior steps to be completed before addressing the investment question.

Typically this results in random acts of investments (buying this and that) without knowing whether something is really a fit. Such investments can hold back your investment portfolio from delivering the right outcomes. Buying traditional insurance policies and choosing dividend option in an equity mutual fund are examples of such nonsense.

As far as money and investments are concerned, one needs to take a step by step approach. Personally, I would like to see the initial steps marked complete before the investment question is raised.

One tool that can be of great help to you is a checklist.

Direct Plans of Mutual Funds – Big Deal?

March 14, 2016October 26, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

Since Jan 1, 2013, all mutual fund schemes now come in 2 variants – a regular plan and a direct plan. You may ask what is the difference?

A regular plan is one, which you invest in through a mutual fund distributor and for which a distributor earns a commission. The distributor could be your friendly neighbourhood one or an online distributor like FundsIndia, Scripbox, ICICI Direct, etc. Even your banks – HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank or Axis Bank are all distributors. With all them, you can invest in regular plans only.

Announcing “Unovest”

October 23, 2015 by Vipin Khandelwal

In my past interactions with you and based on the other feedback that I have received, one issue that has stood out is about investing in direct plans of mutual funds.

It is just not easy today.

What are your options?

Your regular distributors, including the online ones, do not offer direct plans. That is not their business model. This is thus not an option.
The registrars including CAMS and Karvy have a limited online facility to invest. The myCAMS solution from CAMS is great but then is limited to lump-sum and switch transactions as of now, not SIPs. Not to mention, you can deal with only the 15 Mutual Funds. What about the others? The solution from Karvy, which is another registrar like CAMS, is nothing to write about.
The next option is that you invest with mutual funds directly. This is super cumbersome. You have to go to each fund house’s website that you want to invest with, create a login id and password and then go through the process of investing. The result is multiple login ids and passwords and no central tracking or monitoring of your portfolio.