Consumer Behavior towards Mutual Funds and Systematic Investment Plan (Sip) In the Case Study of SBI Mutual Funds

Name:                   Rahul Gupta (2008 – 2010)

Title:                    Consumer Behavior towards Mutual Funds and Systematic Investment Plan (Sip) In the Case Study of SBI Mutual Funds

Summary

This project has been a great learning experience for me; at the same time it gave me enough scope to implement my analytical ability. This project as a whole can be divided into two parts: 

• The first part gives an insight about the mutual funds and its various aspects. One can have a brief knowledge about mutual funds and all its basics through the project. Other than that the real servings come when one moves ahead. Some of the most interesting questions regarding mutual funds have been covered. Some of them are: why has it become one of the largest financial intermediaries? How investors do chose between funds? Most popular stocks among fund managers, most lucrative sectors for fund managers, a special report on Systematic Investment Plan, does fund performance persists and the topping of all the servings in the form of portfolio analysis tool and its application.
• All the topics have been covered in a very systematic way. The language has been kept simple so that even a layman could understand. All the datas have been well analyzed with the help of charts and graphs.
• The second part consists of data’s and their analysis, collected through a survey done on 110 people. It covers the topic “Consumer behavior towards mutual funds and systematic investment plan (SIP)”. The data collected has been well organized and presented. Hope the research findings and conclusions will be of use.

Objective:

• To identify the consumer behavior towards mutual funds.
• To develop model portfolios based on clients profile and requirements.

To identify the consumer buying process of mutual funds.

To identify the factors which influence the customers to purchase mutual funds.

To identify the match between company’s strategy to sell the mutual funds and customers requirement.

To do a comparative analysis between Lump sum investments & Systematic Investment plan.                     

• To give recommendation to the company on the basis of study for future course of action.

Recommendations:

• There should be an effective communication between the mutual fund seller and purchaser.
• Timely advises should be provided to the investor.
• Investor should be made realized that if he is not investing in mutual funds now what he is losing for the future.
• Should be made aware of the benefits.
• The advisors should target for more and more young investors.
• The advisors may try to highlight some of the value added benefits of MFs such as tax benefit, rupee cost averaging, and systematic transfer plan, rebalancing etc. these benefits are not offered by other options singlehandedly. So these are enough to drive the investors towards mutual funds.
• Investors could also try to increase the spectrum of services offered.
• The advisors should try to charge a nominal fee at the beginning. But if not possible then they could go for offering more services and benefits at the existing rate.
• They should also maintain their decency and follow the code of ethics so that the investors could trust upon them.
• The advisors should try to attract more and more persons and turn them into investors and finally their clients.

Conclusions:

After analyzing the data we can say that a Mutual Fund is the most suitable investment for the common man as it offers an opportunity to invest in a diversified, professionally managed basket of securities at a relatively low cost.

There is enough scope for the investors to invest money in mutual funds for the longer returns with a lesser risk factor.

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The above article is a summary extract from the dissertation projects of the MBA and BBA students of Skyline College. Skyline, situated in Delhi and Gurgaon (NCR) is a premier institute providing management education specialising in MBA and BBA degrees and specialist courses for travel and tourism as well as mass communication.