Axis Mutual Fund, A new paradigm of online investment (2024)

The mutual fund (MF) industry has seen explosive growth in the last decade. According to the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Assets Under Management (AUM) of the MF industry in India stood at Rs 40.38 trillion in November, 2022 from Rs 7.93 trillion in 2012, a staggering five-fold increase in just 10 years. As more Indian consumers realise the importance of investing for wealth creation, mutual funds have become an attractive option to invest in when compared to other instruments like stocks, which are inherently riskier.

Type of MF plans
Indian consumers can invest in mutual funds by opting for either the regular/indirect plan or the direct plan.

• Regular plans: Regular plans are those in which one invests in mutual funds through a distributor or agent. Regular plans can be the right choice for investors who don’t have the time or the knowhow to invest in mutual fund schemes directly. However, regular plans have a higher expense ratio as they have to pay commissions to their distributors. These costs are deducted from the net asset value (NAV), which is nothing but the assets of the fund after the fund liabilities are deducted divided by the total number of units and NAV is also the price at which investors buy or sell their mf units. Fund liabilities are larger in case of regular plans due to high distribution costs, which in turn makes their NAV lower.

• Direct plans: In direct plans, investors can directly invest in their chosen MF scheme without any intervention of distributors and agents. These include online portals of mutual fund houses such as Axis Mutual Fund, the respective apps of different mutual funds such as Axis Mutual Fund app and other digital channels such as mutual fund utilities (MFU). Investing online has various advantages. The most obvious is that there are no commission fees, which translates to higher NAV values for these plans.

Additionally, a lot of the due diligence that is required before investing in mutual fund schemes is neatly packaged and explained to consumers in easy-to-remember steps making it a lot easier for even beginners to start investing. Online portals like axismf.com also have features like the Knowledge Library or Knowledge Centre, which helps in keeping you up to date with daily market updates of the everchanging mutual-fund landscape.

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Benefits of online investing
The online mutual-fund interface also offers a dynamic and personalised investment experience. Users can also avail the WhatsApp service, which can help users access various details and services like NAV, valuation, account statement, purchase and redemption status, logging a complaint or a query or a request, transactions.

The overall experience is smoother with a wide variety of payment options available like UPI (Unified Payments Interface), RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) and net banking.

The whole focus of the online channels is to make the investment journey simple and hassle-free. With explosive growth of the mutual fund industry in India, the number of mutual fund schemes has also skyrocketed. There are mutual fund schemes in multiple asset classes from stocks (equity) and debt to a hybrid of equity and debt. There are also sector and industry-specific funds and also fund of funds (FoF).

How to invest in MFs?
Investing in mutual funds is essentially lifestage-based planning as the outcome of the scheme should be aligned with your current life goals. The particular scheme to invest in also depends on your particular goals (wealth accumulation, retirement, children’s education) and investment horizon or the time for which one will remain invested in the scheme.

This is where online channels make it easier for consumers. Axis Mutual Funds, axismf.com, for example, can list the appropriate mutual fund schemes based on some simple details such as the risk profile of a particular investor, the returns that they expect and their investment horizon.

Goals and lifestage-based planning are critical when deciding where to invest precious capital and it should be considered by every investor before beginning their investment and wealth creation journeys.

It has also become easier for the average consumer to invest in multiple schemes at once. Users can pick and choose what is ideal for them and create a separate SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) plan or pay a lump sum, which is to make a single payment. This can make it easier for investors to create even more diversification in their portfolios.

Check out platforms such as Axis Mutual Fund, which are increasingly offering express products and services like one-minute checkout experiences and a range of investment packs. Investment packs, a service recently launched by Axis Mutual Fund, is a product offering a basket of diverse schemes, in which a single SIP plan can be used to invest in multiple schemes across asset and risk profiles. Such innovation helps in making the investment decision-making process easier and intuitive.

Disclaimer: Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.

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