Keeping Track of all your Mutual Fund Investments

Keeping Track of all your Mutual Fund Investments

You may have invested in mutual funds through a variety of ways – through a distributor, bank or on your own. Nevertheless, keeping track of all your mutual fund investments is easy.

Under the KYC (Know Your Customer) guidelines from the regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), any investor needs to give important information like his/her Permanent Account Number (PAN), verified address etc. for the KYC compliance procedure. The procedure is a simple one-time exercise and it makes your PAN number your unique identifier. This makes it easier to track all your mutual fund investments at a single go.

 What is CAS?

Starting March 2015, you can track all your investments in mutual funds and securities in demat (paperless) format, held in depositories, in a single Consolidated Account Statement or CAS. Your mutual fund investments are consolidated based on the common PAN number provided during the investment. CAS is issued according to the directive of SEBI, which is the regulatory body for markets in India.

For any investor, who does not have a demat account and has only mutual fund investments, CAS is sent by the mutual fund. The AMCs identify common investors across mutual funds by their PAN number to send the consolidated statement.

A CAS will be sent on or before the tenth of the following month, detailing all transactions (including any charges) and current status of the portfolios as of end of the month. If there is any transaction in any of the demat accounts or mutual fund portfolios, then the CAS is sent on a monthly basis. However, in case of an absence of any transaction in their mutual fund units or folios, the CAS is sent every six months or half-yearly basis providing the details of the holdings.

Which financial transactions are included in CAS?

A CAS will include all purchase, redemption and switching transactions like purchasing units in an NFO, redemption or maturity, SIP, STP and SWP, dividend payout, reinvestments etc. In addition to the details of the financial transactions, it will also include the opening and closing units of all the mutual fund portfolios.

However, incase of a monthly CAS, only those portfolios are included, in which a transaction has taken place in that given month.

For example, let’s say you have invested in three mutual fund schemes A, B and C in the month of March. While the investment in A has been via a one-time lump sum, investments in B and C have been started via SIPs. Assuming that in April, no other transaction happens in these mutual fund portfolios except SIP investments, the CAS for April, received on or before the tenth of May, will reflect only the SIP transactions taken place for B and C as there is no transaction in A for the month of April.

Apart from your financial transactions, CAS will also include your KYC status, mode of holding, email ID registered, nominee registration status, Unique Client Code (UCC) and International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) for each mutual fund portfolio and scheme. It doesn’t include any sensitive information like your bank account number or your PAN number.

A CAS makes keeping track of all your mutual fund investments hassle free. Further, in case of any discrepancy in transactions or investor details, it enables the investor to point it out quickly. They can go back to the concerned AMC and get it addressed easily.

Happy Investing

Source:hdfcmfinvestwise.com