A new, investor-friendly way to manage systematic investment plans in mutual funds
FundsIndia.com, the leading online-only financial services provider, today launched its new value-added investment service named "Flexi-SIP". Using this service, investors in mutual funds will be able to make flexible systematic investment plan (SIP) payments for their monthly investments.
"At FundsIndia.com, we recognize the value of systematic investment planning method for retail investors. Hence, we have always tried to make the process friendly and flexible for new SIP investors. Flex-SIP is another step in this direction", said C R Chandrasekar, CEO of FundsIndia.com.
With Flexi-SIP, an investor can choose a mutual fund scheme, a regular investment amount, and a monthly investment date like for any other SIP. However, the investor will also choose a maximum investment amount. The ECS mandate will be issued for this maximum amount. This amount can be as high as 10 times the regular investment amount.
After this, every month, the investor will have the flexibility to set the amount for the next SIP installment. This can be any amount between the minimum required for that scheme and the maximum set by the investor. This chosen amount will be the amount that gets debited for that installment from the investor’s bank account and invested in the SIP scheme.
"It is, however, not absolutely necessary for the investor to set this value every month", said Srikanth Meenakshi, Director at FundsIndia.com, "If they do not do anything, the regular amount will be invested like any other SIP. So, the investor get both the benefit of hands-off investment of SIP as well as the flexibility to change the value if they so desire".
Flexi-SIP will be available across all schemes that accept SIP from the 33 mutual fund companies carried by the FundsIndia.com, the online platform.
This new feature is expected to be especially useful for new investors in mutual funds who are not sure about the amount of money that they will be able to save. "They can set the regular amount at a level they feel comfortable with, and set the maximum value higher so that they can increase their contribution when they can afford it", said Srikanth.
"Along with Alert SIP, Portfolio SIP and value-averaging investment plan, Flexi-SIP will really help investors manage their regular investments in a way that is most comfortable for them", said Chandrasekar, "We are confident that more and more investors will see the value of such an offering and choose to invest their savings regularly".
