5 key things you should check before investing in any Mutual Fund schemes

Past Performance

It’s very important to know how the fund has performed in the past across various market cycles. Every fund has been benchmarked to an index to evaluate their performance according to the portfolio construct. The Fund Manager’s job is to outperform the benchmark consistently in the long run. The fund might have delivered 15% CAGR but failed to outperform its benchmark, which means that the fund manager is not at the best of his/her abilities. Understand the past performance, even though that is not an accurate parameter to learn the future performance.

Portfolio Holdings

Class of the diversification in the portfolio comprises of the holdings of various stocks. A perfect mix of different sectors and limiting it to the beneficial ones determines a good quality portfolio. This may help you understand the quality of the funds. Investing then is a wiser decision with a good holding pattern and diversification across the sectors.

Product Labeling

As SEBI guidelines has made it mandatory, every scheme has been labeled according to the level of risk involved through pictorial representation called Riskometer. The level of risk has been categorized  as Low, Moderately low, Moderate, Moderately high and high. Hence it is essential to evaluate your risk tolerance before you choose a scheme.