DIY Investing. How Kuvera stacks up in the personal finance app space

For DIY investors who wish to reap the benefits of investing directly in mutual funds, we have been reviewing fintech applications in this column. In continuation with our series, here we review the app of Kuvera Personal Finance.

Besides providing a user-friendly platform for investing in mutual funds, the Kuvera app also allows investors to invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks listed on the US exchanges. App users can also invest in Indian equities, save in fixed deposits from select issuers and transact in digital gold.

Features

The onboarding process is simple and can be entirely done online. Users who have existing investments (KYC completed with other brokers or fund houses), can skip the KYC (Know Your Customer) step and proceed by just providing their PAN (Permanent Account Number). One can invest in direct schemes of mutual funds in the app. The app also does seamless consolidation of one’s existing investments in other platforms and demat accounts. For periodic tracking of all investments at one place, an user can set up auto-forwarding rules in their email inbox, for Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) sent by Karvy or CAMS. Users can also set their financial goals in the app. Based on one’s existing investments, the app also suggests ideal asset allocation, preferred investment avenues and required investment amounts to attain the said goals. These suggestions are prompted not just while setting up the goal, but are also updated based on the stage of goal achievement and one’s existing portfolio.

Widening the range for tracking investments, the app helps you import monthly transactions from Employee’s Provident Fund (by entering UAN login credentials in the app). Users can generate yearly tax statements from the app. One can also send money abroad using the Remit feature in the app (through Kuvera’s partnership with TransferWise) by paying a fee.

What we like

Akin to many other apps, Kuvera permits users to switch from regular to direct schemes of the same fund. However, its value-added feature called Trade Smart makes the app stand out against peers.

This feature evaluates the expenses involved - taxes on short- or long-term capital gains and exit loads— and shows the optimal amount a user can switch or redeem at a minimum cost.

The app’s Tax Harvesting feature also sends recommendations to optimally utilise the yearly tax break on long-term capital gains (up to ₹1 lakh) on your equity MF investments—by selling and repurchasing units.

You can also manage all your family accounts from one place, one login.

Besides you can add a trusted investment manager or friend as a ‘Manager’. They can view and review your portfolio as well as initiate transactions for you. Your authorisation (by OTP), however, is a must for executing the same.

Watch out for

Certain facilities such as Trade Smart can only be unlocked using coins earned in the app.

Users earn coins for every financial transaction made through Kuvera, for referring a friend, by purchasing them for money etc. A few users on Google Playstore have also reported instances of bugs and app crashes.

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