Mutual fund for HNIs: Where and how to invest Rs 1 crore

With the new government completing 100 days at the center and the US Fed giving in to the clamor with a resounding 50 bps rate cut, retail investors in Mutual Funds (MFs) who were waiting on the sidelines for the dust to settle can look at deploying monies in their chosen asset classes basis risk appetite and time horizon.

Mutual Funds as an investment vehicle have caught the attention of investors with several industry initiatives, influencers and fintech startups unitedly attracting inflows into the industry. Today, with high HNI and retail participation in Mutual Funds, we are currently witnessing Rs 23,547 crores of monthly SIPs which are at lifetime highs and a staggering Rs 66.7 lakh crores AUM being attributed to the MF industry. This shows the strong performance and importance of MF for investors – both new and experienced.

An important aspect today for investors is the multitude of MF categories and schemes to select from (45 Asset Management Companies at last count) makes the choice both bewildering and overwhelming. Thankfully, at times like these, a wealth manager can come to a UHNI/HNI clients rescue and navigate the vast MF universe for them. SEBI via the MF re-categorisation norms in 2018 straitjacketed MFs in distinct MF categories with each AMC being instructed to fit their current and new schemes into these with an aim to simplify MF investments for investors and standardise performance comparison etc.

One is reminded of famous quote attributed to Warren Buffet: “MFs are like children. Never have more than you can manage”. MFs are inherently diversified with each having an underlying of 30 to 60 + stocks / bonds on average. Hence, the incremental diversification benefit by holding many MF schemes reduces progressively. As a financial expert, we suggest consolidating your MF investments into an optimum number of 8 to 12 schemes at maximum for UHNIs/HNIs with a corpus of 1 cr for mutual funds as a category.

The below table gives suggested MF allocation to UHNIs/HNIs belonging to 3 different risk profiles assuming a 1 Cr. corpus and a timeline of 5 – 7 years. Keeping Buffet’s maxim in mind, the number of MF schemes have been limited to 12.

Illustration by Naresh Bulchandani, CFA, CAIA at Merisis Wealth for UHNIs/HNIs

However, there are certain important points that UHNI/HNI investors may note:

• Given that equity market valuations are not cheap, the deployment in equity-oriented funds to be staggered over 6 to 12 months preferably via a weekly STP or monthly SIP form to enjoy rupee cost averaging.
• Cash, Debt, Hybrid and Gold fund allocation may be done in lumpsum.
• Thematic equity (i.e. Infra) / Sectoral equity (i.e. Financial Services) funds carry higher risk than diversified equity funds (i.e. large cap / flexicap / value).
• International equity funds carry higher risk than domestic equity funds
• Number of funds can be further reduced by choosing Hybrid funds which are a mix of cash, debt, equity and gold

While several retail investors are becoming HNIs with a higher growth in income and diversification of income streams, it is important that professionals manage your MFs beyond a point of time as DIY investing requires time commitments as your portfolio expands. Hence, several clients prefer to have an expert wealth manager or trusted financial advisor allocate and manage their portfolio to act on underperforming schemes in a timely manner and actively manage their mutual funds keeping in mind the taxation and capital gains horizon and slabs. All of this collectively leads to a better predictability on your portfolio performance in line with your short term and long-term goals.

(Naresh Bulchandani, CFA, CAIA is the Head of Products and Advisory at Merisis Wealth, part of the Merisis Group which has presence across Investment Banking, Venture Capital and Wealth Management).