Mutual Fund Products for the New Cadre of Distributors – Liquid | Index | Equity | Retirement | FMP Schemes

Mutual funds are investment vehicles that pool money from multiple investors to purchase a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities. This collective investment structure allows individual investors to gain access to a broader range of assets than they might be able to afford or manage on their own.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Liquid Schemes/Money Market Schemes
2. Index Funds
3. Diversified Equity Schemes
4. Retirement Benefit Schemes
5. Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs)

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Introduction

This blog deals with the specific products allowed to be distributed by the basic cadre of distributors¹.

As per the circular, the following may be considered to be empanelled as mutual fund distributors under the new cadre:

1. Postal agents,
2. Retired government and semi-government officials (class III and above or equivalent) with a service of at least 10 years,
3. Retired bank officers with a service of at least 10 years, and
4. Other similar persons (such as bank correspondents) as may be notified by AMFI/AMC from time to time

These new cadre distributors can sell only simple and performing schemes. Such products include:

1. Liquid/money market schemes
2. Index schemes
3. Diversified equity schemes
4. Retirement benefit schemes having tax benefits
5. Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs)

These products should have returns equal to or better than their scheme benchmark returns during each of the last three years.

This blog would discuss each of these schemes in detail.

1. Liquid Schemes/Money Market Schemes

A Liquid Fund is an open-ended liquid scheme whose investment is into debt and money market securities with maturity of upto 91 days only.

A Money Market Fund is an open-ended debt scheme investing in money market instruments having maturity upto 1 year.

Both the above categories of funds invest in debt and money market securities, with very short maturities. As mentioned above, while money market funds can invest in money market securities that mature in less than a year; liquid funds can invest in debt and money market securities maturing within 91 days. This means the interest rate risk² is very low in both these funds. Money market securities also have high credit rating, and hence the credit risk is very low.

These funds are considered to be among the lowest risk funds within mutual funds.
Low interest rate risk coupled with low credit risk makes these funds suitable for short term parking of surplus money. Many mutual fund distributors recommend these funds to their investors when the surplus is available for short, but uncertain periods.

Many also use these funds for another purpose. They park the customer’s surplus funds in liquid or money market funds, and then periodically transfer the same in equity funds on a regular basis – a process known as Systematic Transfer Plan (STP).

2. Index Funds

An Index Fund is an open-ended scheme replicating/tracking a specific index. The minimum investment in securities of a particular index (which is being replicated/ tracked) shall be 95 percent of total assets. In other words, at least 95 percent of the assets of the scheme must be invested in the constituents of the index.

In order to understand an index fund, it is important to know what an index is. A stock market index is created by selecting a group of stocks that are representative of the whole market or a specified sector or segment of the market. An Index is calculated with reference to a base period and a base index value. An Index is used to give information about the price movements of products in the financial, commodities or any other markets. Financial indexes are constructed to measure price movements of stocks, bonds, T-bills and other forms of investments. Stock market indexes are meant to capture the overall behaviour of equity markets³.

As mentioned in the definition above, it is a representative of the entire market, or a specified segment of the same. It is also known as the barometer of the respective market. When the value of the index moves up, the market is considered have moved up, and vice versa. Looking at it in another way, observers look at the index movement to check whether the market is up or down.

There are indices to track various markets, across asset categories. Here is a list of some of the indices available in the various markets:

• S&P BSE Sensex is an index representing stocks of 30 large companies listed on the BSE Ltd.
• NIFTY 50 is an index that represents stocks of 50 large companies listed on the National Stock Exchange.
• NIFTY SmallCap 250 is an index that represents stocks of 250 small companies listed on the National Stock Exchange.
• CRISIL Liquid Fund Index is an index that seeks to track the performance of liquid funds – essentially representing liquid funds.
• I-Sec Li-Bex is an index representing Government bonds with long term maturity (of more than 7 years).
• Russell 3000 index is an index representing 3000 stocks listed in the US stock markets
• Nifty Bank Index is an index that comprises of the most liquid and large Indian banks.

An index fund is a mutual fund that replicates an index. Thus, an index fund becomes the simplest product for an investor seeking to take an exposure to a market or a segment thereof. Someone who wants to invest in large companies in India can simply buy an index fund tracking S&P BSE Sensex or Nifty. Similarly, one can take exposure to the smallcap segment of the market by buying Nifty Smallcap 250 index fund (assuming that such a fund is available). As we can also see from the above examples, there are indices available on sectors, and hence there could be funds available that track such indices. There could also be mutual funds investing in foreign stocks, or even debt papers and government securities.

An index fund is also called a passive fund, since the fund manager need not be actively manage the portfolio, which only mirrors the composition of the underlying index. The role of the fund management team is only to manage the inflows into and outflows from the fund on account of purchases and redemptions; and ensure that the portfolio tracks the respective index. In other words, the fund manager does not need to decide which securities to buy or sell and when to do so.

Due to a very limited role of the fund management team, the total expense ratio (TER) in case of index funds is very low. SEBI has also allowed a lower limit of the maximum expenses that could be charged.

Given such characteristics of the index funds, they make a good choice for many investors:

• As already mentioned, it is the simplest way to take exposure to any market.
• For those seeking wealth creation, but are not sure which schemes to choose, equity-oriented index funds could be an ideal choice.
• For those seeking to invest overseas, but do not possess enough skills to conduct research on foreign stocks, an index fund tracking the respective foreign market is an excellent choice.

Since the index fund tracks the underlying index, it becomes easy for an investor to understand and track the performance of the scheme. Currently in India, we have index funds available on equity indices, and majority of these are tracking the large-cap indices, viz., Nifty and Sensex.

3. Diversified Equity Schemes

Equity as an asset class has the potential to generate returns higher than inflation. When that happens, the purchasing power of one’s money grows. In other words, one’s wealth increases when the investment yields higher returns than inflation. At the same time, equity is a risky asset in that the share prices fluctuate a lot. Due to such fluctuations, there is a high possibility that one may end up buying at high prices or selling at low prices or both.

There is also a risk involved in equity investing. When an investor invests in a company’s share, there is a possibility that the company does very well, and the share price moves up over the years. At the same time, if the company struggles or incurs losses or fails altogether, the shareholder loses. The loss could be as much as the entire capital invested.

While investors would want to invest in such an asset category, but would also like to reduce the risk as much as possible.

The risks highlighted above can be mitigated through two things:

• By investing in a diversified portfolio made up of stocks of good quality companies in sound businesses, and
• By staying invested for long term through ups and downs of the markets

The first can be easily achieved through investing in a diversified equity mutual fund, and once that is done, one only needs to stay invested in the mutual fund scheme, or to keep adding to the investment periodically as and when one’s savings permit. For a large number of investors, SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) helps here.

A diversified equity fund is a simple type of mutual fund that invests across a wide spectrum of companies representing a number of industrial sector. Such diversification reduces the risk of owning one company’s share or the risk of owning shares of companies from one industry.

Care must be taken by the distributor to see the segment of the market that such a fund is investing in – is it investing in stocks of large companies, or mid-sized companies, or small companies, or a combination of these? The large companies are generally less risky in comparison to their smaller counterparts. At the same time, these small companies also offer higher return potential. Care must be taken to understand this while selecting the schemes for the investors.

4. Retirement Benefit Schemes

Retirement Fund: An open-ended retirement solution-oriented scheme having a lock-in of 5 years or till retirement age (whichever is earlier). Scheme having a lock-in for at least 5 years or till retirement age whichever is earlier. The retirement benefit schemes are meant for creating a retirement corpus that can generate income to fund the lifestyle after one retires from work.

Most fund houses offer more than one options under this category to satisfy the needs of different categories of investors, depending on their risk-taking ability. For those who can afford to take high risks, there are plans that allocate more money to equity assets, whereas for the conservative investors, the fund houses offer plans with higher allocation to debt (which means lower allocation to equity).

These schemes come with a lock-in of 5 years, and offer tax benefit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

Depending on the type of scheme, the investment would be predominantly between equity and debt securities. The scheme could be named an aggressive fund, or an equity fund that would invest predominantly in equity shares; however, the moderate or conservative plans (some fund houses call these equity hybrid plans and debt hybrid plans).

Resident Indians, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) are eligible to invest in the retirement benefit schemes only if they are of 18 years and above.

5. Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs)

Fixed maturity plans are a kind of close-ended debt fund where the duration of the investment portfolio is closely aligned to the maturity of the scheme. AMCs tend to structure the scheme around pre-identified investments. Further, being close-ended schemes, they do not accept money post-NFO. Therefore, the fund manager has little ongoing role in deciding on the investment options. Such a portfolio construction gives more clarity to investors on the likely returns if they stay invested in the scheme until its maturity (though there can be no guarantee or assurance of such returns). This helps them compare the risk and returns of the scheme with alternative investments.

As already mentioned, the big benefit of such schemes is that it is relatively easy to estimate the returns expected from such schemes. At the same time, these are close-ended funds and hence no redemption is allowed before the scheme’s maturity. On maturity of the scheme, the investors’ money is returned. In order to provide liquidity to the investors, listing of the units of such schemes on recognized stock exchanges is compulsory. However, such listing does not guarantee liquidity, as the trading volumes in these units may be very low, or there may be no trading at all.

The Asset Management Companies (AMCs) are required to publish a list of such simple and performing schemes on their websites to enable to new cadre of distributors to distribute these schemes to their clients.

Drivers of returns

In the liquid and money market funds, the major driver of the scheme returns would be the yield earned from the debt instruments. Similarly, in case of FMPs too, the returns would come from the yield on the debt securities.

The diversified equity funds and the index funds would derive the returns from the returns generated by the portfolio of stocks the scheme has invested in.

The returns from the retirement funds would depend on how the money is allocated between equity and debt.

1. SEBI circular CIR/IMD/DF/21/2012 dated September 13, 2012.
2. Interest rate risk is the sensitivity of debt securities with respect to movement of interest rates within the economy. When the interest rates move up, prices of debt papers move down, and vice versa.
3. Source: www.nseindia.com