Kolkata, Jan 22 (UNI) FundsIndia, the country’s largest retail investment platform,today announced launching of FundsIndia SmartSIP, in association with Franklin Templeton AMC, for its customers.

This first-of-its-kind service combines the discipline of SIP along with dynamically managing the monthly SIP allocation to each fund based on market conditions, according to company sources.

SmartSIP invests in an equity fund and a debt fund, from the Franklin India stable, every month. By default, the equity fund’s allocation would be 70 per cent and the debt fund would receive 30 per cent. However, allocation to the equity fund and the debt fund will dynamically change every month based on both market fundamentals and momentum factors.

FundsIndia’s co-founder and COO Srikanth Meenakshi said, 'We have been listening to what our investors are seeking for a decade now. This product grew out of understanding these requirements. With SmartSIP, an investor can make smart allocations between equity and debt every month based on the signals we receive from a well-proven quantitative model.

'This adjustment does not disturb the investor’s monthly savings. There’s no need to increase SIP amount or reduce it in order to benefit from dynamic allocation. This ensures that savings are disciplined and there is no compromise on reaching the desired goal,' he said.

Vidya Bala, head of mutual fund research, elaborated that there were various factors to consider when deciding an asset allocation that takes advantage of market conditions.

'This dynamic model developed by experts shows back-tested capability of beating a regular 70:30 SIP by up to 2.6 per cent CAGR over the long term. This is possible because the model seeks to reduce fresh equity allocation and increase debt allocation in a market turning expensive and increase equity allocation in correcting markets. The product reduces an investor’s urge to time the market. More importantly, it contains downside risks better than a static portfolio,' she said.

Mr. Sanjay Sapre, president, Franklin Templeton Investments - India, said, 'SmartSIP is a prudent move by FundsIndia to offer asset allocation solutions to investors vis-à-vis pure products. India is still a nascent market for mutual funds as we have only tapped about two per cent of the population. A majority of potential Indian investors still have an assured returns mindset and look at mutual funds for the higher returns but lack the risk appetite for market volatility.'

UNI PL KK