Jagoinvestor

November 16, 2007

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mutual Funds

Before investing in mutual funds an investor should understand if it suits his requirement of not. Therefore one should go through all the advantages and disadvantages of mutual funds.

Advantage and disadvantage of Mutual funds in India

Advantages of Mutual Funds

  • Management: One of the biggest advantage is that in very low cost the investor gets his investment managed by experts. If they want to get the services solely for their investment , it can be very expensive but by investing in MF they can take advantage of the scale.
  • Scale Advantage : The transaction costs of a single individual is very less because mutual funds buy and sell in big volumes.
  • Diversification: With mutual fund investment your money gets diversified in a lot of things, which helps in minimizing the risk factor. Also if one particular sector doesn’t perform well the loss can be compensated with profits made in other sectors.
  • Liquidity and Simplicity: You can sell or buy mutual funds anytime. So mutual funds are good if you want to invest in something which you can liquidate easily. Also, MF is very simple to buy and sell.

Disadvantages of Mutual Funds

  • Risks and Costs: Changing market conditions can create fluctuations in the value of a mutual fund investment. Also there are fees and expenses associated with investing in mutual funds that do not usually occur when purchasing individual securities directly.
  • No Guarantees: As Mutual funds invest in debt as well equities, there are no sure returns . Returns depends on the market conditions .
  • No Control: Investor does not have control on investment , all the decisions are taken by the fund manager. Investor can just join or leave the show.
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11 Comments
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Amit
Amit
8 years ago

Hi Manish,

Weather their is any iricle by you which can guide to build a ideal aggressive Mutual Fund Portfolio (Percentage for different class like large cap, Mid cap, Multicap, Small Cap, Banking Etc)

Aseem
Aseem
8 years ago

Also i believe there that there is a SEBI mandate that Equity MF’s must remain invested in equity upto 70% at all times, irrespective of the market condition. I think this is a big diadvantage too. So the fund managers hands are tied. There are dynamic allocation funds but their performance isnt that great too. Any insights manish?
Btw i have been a follower of your blog for a long time. And its the first time i have commented, because the answer to my question was always found in the comments section that follows every article. I admire your work. More power to you.
Thanks manish!!
Regards
Aseem

spguptahyd
spguptahyd
8 years ago

Sir I have been investing MF schemes and KYC/FACTA done. Now MF houses BSL/HDFC says KYC failed . Ans HDFC says in person verification to be done . What is the way out to get KYC done again?

Chetan Ambi
Chetan Ambi
10 years ago

Thanks for the article !!

Shyam
Shyam
12 years ago

Thanks for the valuable points Manish.

I have just started with mutual funds, and have read three articles on your site, they are very informative. If you have any other links for mutual funds, provide me them also.

Thanks

Milind
Milind
14 years ago

Hi Manish,

Good article to know about the disadvantages too. There are many articles which tell only good stories. This is different & really good one!
I want to ask one question regarding way of purchasing & sell of MFs. There are agencies like HDFC,ICICI direct those provide facility to open investment account for MFs trading online & take some charges against it. At the same time there are online channels (websites) like – Funds India, Fundsupermart etc those who provide MF trading facility. As per the first hand information about these portals they do not charge anything for mainataining such account for the investor. If there are any hidden charges which I do not know.

Which way is better? What are advantages & disadvantages of going with ICICI direct/HDFC verses online web portals like Funds india/fundsupermart? Which is the best portal you can suggest?

Thanks

Milind