fundsindia vs fundsmartindia

#1
Friends,
I have a icicidirect acct and i am happy with it for both my MF as well as Equity investment. I have a friend who wants to invest newly and has 2 things the pan card and a NRE account. She doesnot want to go through the hassles and bindings of icici as one has to open acct with both direct and bank and then link them. besides she find their charges and support charges are high.

Now i found this on Livemint that the 2 platforms mentioned in the subject offer a free service to apply across all the funds. Both sites look good but there is no place to know their reliability and risks.

Can someone help. Fundsmart is recognised and Fundsindia is fairly new.

Are these platforms relaible and what is the catch that they offer services free for?

Just want to be cautious before i get someone to hook up to any of these. Your expert replies will be appreciated. I would also welcome comments from current users to let me know if it ok to advise the 2 platforms to anyone.

cheers
Lawrie
 
#2
Services of FundsIndia are indeed free to investors, even the courier pickup is pre-paid by FundsIndia for the documents where your signatures are needed. You must be based in India, I think, for free courier pickup!

I have signed up of FundsIndia, and done high value (in lacs of rupees) investment transactions. I find the overall experience very good and pleasant.
 
#4
Hi,

I am also trying to figure out, which one will be better to join as an NRI. And read that fundsmartIndia doesn't allow NRIs currently.
http://www.fundsupermart.co.in/main/faq/faq.svdo?id=8660#6
Hello sir,
This is Srikanth, I am a director here at FundsIndia.com.

We accept NRI customers, and have several NRI customers right now. Here are a couple of points:

1. Typically NRI customers are comfortable working with financial advisors who can guide them with their investment decisions (since they are far away, and unsure about the markets here). However, the problem with many advisors is that they are not supported by an electronic transaction platform. This makes it difficult for them to conduct business with NRIs because of the intensive paperwork required for the non-electronic MF transactions. FundsIndia offers a neat solution for this situation - we provide our platform for advisors and their clients so that the clients can get advise from their IFA and do their transaction over web through FundsIndia. This has worked out very well for several clients. Some of our advisors charge their clients for the advice (FundsIndia does not, the advisor does), and some provide their advice for free. FundsIndia has revenue sharing agreement with the advisors (for all fees we get from the MF companies). So, if you are an NRI customer looking for both a way to invest in Indian MFs, and advise along the way, do let us know, and we can hook you up to an advisor.

Of course, an NRI customer can choose to invest without any advisory support as well.

2. The one-time documentation requirements for an NRI are a bit tedious - the person needs to have a PAN card, a proof of address (foreign), a copy of passport, and NRE/NRO account (with adequate proof, like a cheque leaf). Some of these documents will need to be notarized by a bank official abroad, which can be a pain. These are just regulatory KYC requirements that cannot be circumvented. At FundsIndia, we will communicate clearly as to what is required, acceptable etc to the customer. What we have found is that since this is a one-time requirement, customers don't have a problem with it as long as they know clearly what they need to produce.

Overall, we have happy NRI customers from several parts of the world. Some come through advisors, and some by themselves. We are happy to support both.

You can write to me for more info at : contact at fundsindia dot com

Thanks,

Srikanth
 
#5
Hi lawrie & bhupendra,

I can help u out in a very simple way just add my yahoo id will help u out silentwavesofocen at yahoo dot com

Hope to hear soon.

Regards
 
#6
I am an NRI and opened an account with fundsindia a year ago. Their site is good and reliable. I have even recommended them for couple of my friends.

They even did a good job in transferring my existing mutual funds into fundsindia account.

They are now allowing NRI to invest in equity... will be trying that in a couple of days :thumb:
 

yodlee99

Active Member
#7
I guess the point that is missed out is that fundsindia or fundsmartindia donot charge the customers DIRECTLY. However, when the customer owns a mutual fund, a portion of returns is subtracted by the mutual fund company or AMC for 2 things - internal expenses and trail commission. While the AMCs use the 1st portion to pay the fund manager, marketing costs etc; the 2nd part called trail commission is shared with the brokers like fundsindia or fundsmartindia or Integrated Enterprises etc. If you invest directly, the AMC keeps both the portions with itself, I think.
Whether you go through a broker or not, a fixed amount is charged from the returns of your mutual fund investment by the AMC. In other words, you can avail of services like that of fundsindia without any extra financial burden. Such companies survive off of the trail commission and conduct their businesses completely online, I guess, in order to minimize the running costs.
 
#8
I guess the point that is missed out is that fundsindia or fundsmartindia donot charge the customers DIRECTLY. However, when the customer owns a mutual fund, a portion of returns is subtracted by the mutual fund company or AMC for 2 things - internal expenses and trail commission. While the AMCs use the 1st portion to pay the fund manager, marketing costs etc; the 2nd part called trail commission is shared with the brokers like fundsindia or fundsmartindia or Integrated Enterprises etc. If you invest directly, the AMC keeps both the portions with itself, I think.
Whether you go through a broker or not, a fixed amount is charged from the returns of your mutual fund investment by the AMC. In other words, you can avail of services like that of fundsindia without any extra financial burden. Such companies survive off of the trail commission and conduct their businesses completely online, I guess, in order to minimize the running costs.
Hi Is it safe
 
#9
I opened an account with fundsindia recently. After the transaction we can verify the transaction with CAMS/Karvy directly by requesting for consolidated statement. I have applied for two other funds from CAMS directly. In one fund nominee details was wrong and in other fund I made mistake while filling nomination. By this I feel I should have applied with fundindia only.
 

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