Selecting Mutual Funds: Process Over Performance
Why we start with philosophy and portfolio rather than the return column.
Read the noteMutual Funds
Mutual funds remain an important component of a diversified investment portfolio. We focus on selecting a small number well, rather than offering every fund available.
The Role They Play
For most investors, and for most of a portfolio, mutual funds do the job well: professional management, genuine diversification, strong disclosure and liquidity when it is needed.
The difficulty is not access. Thousands of schemes are available, and the majority are variations on the same underlying exposure. Owning fifteen funds across four platforms usually produces an index return with an active fee attached — and a portfolio nobody can explain.
Our work is subtraction. We look for a compact set of funds where each holding has a defined role: core compounding, a specific market segment, a source of stability, or genuine liquidity for near-term requirements.
Invyas Wealth focuses on curated selection, not on offering every fund available. If a scheme does not do something the portfolio needs, its past returns are irrelevant to us.
Selection
Selection considerations may include the following. None of them is a one-year return.
01
A stated approach that is specific enough to be tested, and evident in the portfolio through different market conditions.
02
Experience, tenure on the scheme, and whether the process survives a change of individual.
03
What the fund actually owns — balance sheet strength, cash generation, governance and liquidity of the underlying holdings.
04
Whether the mandate is coherent, and whether it complements rather than duplicates the rest of the portfolio.
05
Drawdown history, concentration, credit and duration positioning, and how the scheme has behaved when its style was out of favour.
06
What the portfolio is priced at today relative to its own history and to the alternatives available.
07
Performance across cycles rather than in a single favourable window, and consistency between what was promised and what was delivered.
08
Total expense, scheme size relative to strategy capacity, and taxation of the category in the investor’s hands.
For NRI Investors
Non-resident investors can invest in Indian mutual funds on a repatriable or non-repatriable basis through NRE and NRO accounts, subject to FEMA regulations and the scheme’s own eligibility terms. Documentation, tax residency, withholding and the treatment of gains in the country of residence all require attention before the first investment, not after it.
Certain fund houses restrict investments from specific jurisdictions for regulatory reasons. We map the practical options first, so that the portfolio you build is one you can actually operate from where you live.
Related
Why we start with philosophy and portfolio rather than the return column.
Read the noteThe decision that does most of the work in any portfolio.
Read the noteDifferentiated strategies for portfolios that are already well built.
Explore AIFsGet in touch
Every investor has different objectives, constraints and aspirations. Let’s start with a conversation.