There is some good news for the mutual fund industry. Close to six out of 10 SIPs have been active for more than five years, shows a note sent to fund houses by AMFI.
Of the 1.34 crore SIP accounts as on April 2017, nearly 74 lakh or 55% SIPs are active for more than five years.
Experts attribute this increased awareness to the untiring efforts of IFAs.
G PradeepKumar, CEO, Union MF and Vice Chairman, AMFI believes that the investment horizon of people has increased because advisers encourage their clients to invest for long term to meet financial goals. “A lot of advisers help their clients identify financial goals before starting an SIP.” He says that a majority of these active SIPs have been channelized by IFAs.
While the industry has added 7.24 lakh new SIP accounts in April, 2.65 lakh accounts were discontinued or matured during the same period.
In terms of monthly inflows, the total amount collected through SIPs has increased to Rs.4,269 crore (Rs.407crore under direct plans and Rs. 3,862 under regular plan) as on April 2017. In March 2017, the industry got gross monthly inflows of 4.335 crore from SIPs. This marginal decline is due to profit booking, says experts.
Interestingly, the total AUM of SIP stood at Rs. 1.54 lakh crore as on April 2017, which is around 8% of the overall AUM of the mutual fund industry.
Currently, the industry has over 1.23 crore SIPs in regular plans and 11.48 lakh SIPs in direct plans. The AUM of SIPs collected under regular plan is Rs.1.42 lakh crore whereas the AUM of SIPs collected through direct plans stood at Rs. 11,300 crore.