Second Time Investors In Mutual Funds (MF)

If you are a person who has invested once or twice in MF, typically through a distributor, and you want to invest more but want to DIY (do it yourself) this post is meant for you.

What you need:

• Your PAN card (you must have done your KYC already, if not get it done before you start investing)
• Bank account with Netbanking
• You may also need your Adhaar card.

We will take Birla Sunlife MF as a sample and let's say we plan to invest Rs10000 in Birla Short Term Plan Direct Growth Option. This also happens to have no exit load and the returns are decent.

Let's go to their site: 

1. https://mutualfund.birlasunlife.com/Pages/Individual/Home.aspx
2. On the top right you see "Invest With Us" Click there
3. If you do not have any investment made in Birla MF then Click on "New Investor"
4. As mentioned earlier you will need a PAN card and a bank account
5. Click On "Get Started"
6. Enter the PAN card, DOB (Date of Birth), mobile number, email ID etc. The DOB is for subsequent verification. Mobile no and email ID are taken so that information from the AMC (about your purchase, withdrawal etc)can be sent to you. 
7. Click "Check PAN status"
8. Go through FATCA verification and then give Aadhaar details.
9. Provide Bank details, choose a bank with Netbanking.
10. Provide Nominee details.
11. Choose a user name, password
12. Choose IVR PIN number, security question and answer. Make sure to keep all the data confidential. 
13. Choose the image for 2 step verification
14. Finally you will get a user id, pwd and folio no.
15. Using these to login in this page: https://mutualfund.birlasunlife.com/Pages/Secured/Individual/UserNameLogin.aspx?utm_source=Link_Login_Investor&utm_medium=Logins&utm_campaign=Homepage_TopLinks
16. Earlier we chose Birla Short Term Plan Growth Option Direct. Let's invest Rs 1000 (that is the minimum investment for this scheme). If you do this transaction before 3PM on a weekday then your transaction should get completed by next working day. Some transactions take 3 working days for example if you are redeeming more than 2 lacs from an equity fund. But these details can wait. You will get to know them later.
17. While doing this process it may help if you have a knowledgeable person available on call or chat who can provide live support in case you are terrified.
18. If you have other folios of Birla MF created offline but in your name (with same PAN card etc) you can map them to the same user ID you created now so you can operate on the other folio also online.

You are all set. 

Happy investing. You get 0.25-1.5% higher returns if you go through Direct and avoid a distributor. If you go through a Distributor you get some services from the distributor including good information and (sometimes misinformation) on products to invest in. If you are investing online and if you already know which scheme to invest in, use Direct as the option. Use growth option instead of dividend option unless:

• You are investing in equity schemes and you want regular divided
• You are parking money in arbitrage scheme and you want to reduce tax.

For other AMCs (Asset Management Companies like ICICI Prudential. HDFC etc. the process will likely be very similar though the websites would be different).


Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/07/arbitrage-and-debt-funds-and-balanced.html
• DIY: Going on a trip - for first timers: http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2014/04/going-on-trip-tips.html
• Which fund owns stocks in a particular company: http://www.morningstar.in/tools/stock-search-mutual-fund-portfolio.aspx
• Returns of funds: https://www.valueresearchonline.com/toprated.asp - Frankling low duration fund and other debt funds from Templeton seem to be doing well in the last 1 year with return about 8%
• Linking Aadhaar to Voter ID: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1600664d83e9471e