Fund Basics. Easy ways to manage your fund holdings

Mutual funds ask investors to provide contact details, such as email ID and mobile number, to send across timely alerts and other useful information.

Application forms contain fields for filling these critical contact details which investors tend to ignore as these are not mandatory.

A number of facilities are available to those who provide their email IDs and mobile numbers. These include:

Almost all mutual funds send email alerts for routine transactions, such as SIPs, which serve as a reminder to ensure availability of funds.

Transaction confirmation in a particular account sent by email serves as confirmation of transaction initiated by the investor and also alerts the investor in case of any unauthorised activity in the account.

Today’s informed investors are keen on updated information regarding their portfolios, require statements to help file returns and want to check the details of transactions in their folios during various periods.

To give investors easy access to information about their investments, registrars have provided a host of self-management tools on their websites.

From regular account statements to portfolio snapshots, consolidated statements and transaction confirmations, investors can have all the information they require in just a few clicks. To make use of many of these facilities, the only simple action investors need to take is to have their email IDs registered in their folios.

Useful, self-help facilities offered by registrars through their websites include the mail-back service.

This refers to statements mailed back to investors at their registered email IDs.

Even without a PIN, investors can visit the mail-back services section of the registrar’s websites and place a request for a wide range of statements, which would be mailed back within minutes. What’s more, investors now can get aggregated information — statements with details consolidated across funds.

Among the statements available to investors is the Portfolio Valuation Statement.

This gives a snapshot of the portfolio of funds with their cost and market value, period of holding and returns. This has asset allocation charts showing how the funds are distributed — a very useful tool to keep track of the portfolio.

Investors can also get a statement which consolidates folios and transactions across mutual funds serviced by different registrars, presenting a single view of transactions in a given time period. Investors can not only receive one consolidated statement with all transaction details, but also a summary statement that shows the summary of holdings on a particular date.

Besides, a statement in an Excel file format is available for those who require it.

In addition to the above statements that detail all folios that the investor may hold, a single folio account statement and a statement of realised gains is also available through the mail-back facility. Investors whose mobile numbers are registered can receive transaction alerts and confirmations.

Some mutual funds have also enabled transaction order placing through mobile phones.

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