Frequently Asked Questions

Saving solutions comprise of debt mutual funds. These funds invest in fixed income instruments such as government and corporate bonds as well money market instruments.

These funds are suitable for you if you are looking to earn capital appreciation over a relatively long time period. These funds are suitable if you have a medium to high risk appetite as well as holding power to hold these investments over a long term (more than 5 years).

Equity funds are best suited for investing over a long term – in excess of 5 years. The stock market goes through cyclical ups and downs and statistically, equity investments tend to earn better returns over the long term, across several market cycles. For shorter periods, our income solutions or savings solutions may be better suited.

While equity funds typically carry higher risk than debt and hybrid funds – different equity funds carry varying degrees of risk depending on their investment strategy and asset allocation. For e.g.: large cap funds invest in stocks of larger and established companies – they may thus carry a lower risk than small and mid-cap funds. Thus, fund type can be chosen depending on whether you are an aggressive or conservative investor.

Equity funds are of several types. equity mutual funds are classified based on their investment composition or portfolio. For your better understanding, here are a few different categories of equity funds:

• Large-cap funds: invest in blue-chip/ large-cap companies.
• Mid-cap funds: invest in mid-size companies.
• Small-cap funds: invest in small-size companies.
• Multi-cap funds: invest in companies across large, medium, and small market capitalizations.
• Sectoral / Thematic funds: invest in stocks of a chosen sector or as per the underlying theme
• ELSS: Invest in equities along with an added advantage of tax-benefit under Section 80C.

To know more details on equity funds’ categories please click here.

Profit earned on redemption of equity oriented mutual funds (more than 65% allocation towards equity) is taxed as capital gains. Funds held for 12 months or more are taxed as long-term capital gains (LTCG). LTCG is only applicable if the gains exceed INR 1 lac – then taxed at 10%. Funds held for period shorter than this are taxed as short-term capital gains, at a beneficial rate of 15%.

Equity funds are better suited for the long term, therefore long-term goals such as child’s education/marriage, buying a house, building a retirement corpus etc are some of the examples of goals that can be funded through equity funds.

Not at all. This is one of the key benefits of equity funds – it allows you to invest in equity funds with an in investment as low as INR 500 per month.

Investing in equity funds comes with a plethora of benefits including –
• Higher potential for capital appreciation
• Reliance on professional fund managers to analyse the markets and companies and select stocks
• Ability to participate in growth of companies even with limited knowledge of the market
• Diversification even with limited investment
• Tax efficiency