MF Portfolio Review

#1
Dear Experts,

I am 32 with 2 children and earn a fair sum every month. We (i.e. me and my wife) are a working couple and have been investing in MF for sometime now. Our combined portfolio as of today is as shown below:
Birla SIP 14%
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 9%
HDFC Prudence SIP 20%
UTI Opportunities SIP 14%
HDFC Top 200 SIP 14%
UTI Infrastructure SIP 6%
Kotak Opportunities SIP 6%
DSPBR TIGER SIP 6%
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 13%


However, DSPBR TIGER, Kotak Opportunities, UTI Infrastructure SIPs are ending this month. Hence, I plan to bifurcate our portfolios into separate individual portfolios as shown below:

Portfolio for me:
BSL Frontline Equity 16%
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 10%
HDFC Prudence SIP 16%
UTI Opportunities SIP 16%
HDFC Top 200 SIP 16%
ICICI Pru Discovery 10%
Reliance Growth 10% (Proposed)
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6%

Portfolio for my wife:
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 13%
HDFC Prudence SIP 17% (Proposed)
HDFC Equity 17%
Fidelity Equity 17% (Proposed)
Templeton India Growth 17%
Sundaram Select Midcap 17%

Can you please review my selection of funds and advise any modifications or customizations?

Many thanks for your inputs and suggestions.

Happy Investing :thumb:
 
#2
After some initial review (self-review), I have remodified the proposed portfolio as below:
Portfolio for me
BSL Frontline Equity 15%
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 10%
HDFC Prudence SIP 15%
BSL Dividend Plus 10%
HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund SIP 10%
HDFC Top 200 SIP 15%
ICICI Pru Discovery 10%
DSPBR Small and Midcap Fund 15%
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6%

Portfolio for my wife
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 13%
HDFC Childrens Gift Investment 17%
HDFC Equity 17%
Fidelity Equity 17%
Templeton India Growth 17%
Sundaram Select Midcap 17%


I am waiting for updates from the esteemed boarders to help me decide on the right choice of funds.
 

yodlee99

Active Member
#3
Youf and yuor wife's portfolios are ok. There is again a case of over-diversification and you can trim them into 4-5 funds.

My suggestions below:
Portfolio for me
BSL Frontline Equity 15% - GOOD
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 10% - GOOD
HDFC Prudence SIP 15% - GOOD
BSL Dividend Plus 10% - GOOD, but do u want a dividend fund?
HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund SIP 10% - SKIP
HDFC Top 200 SIP 15% - GOOD, but can be skipped if u have HDFC prudence
ICICI Pru Discovery 10% - GOOD
DSPBR Small and Midcap Fund 15% - GOOD, and can be replaced with IDFC Premier equity plan A.
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6% - SKIP

Portfolio for my wife
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 13% - SKIP
HDFC Childrens Gift Investment 17% - SKIP
HDFC Equity 17% - GOOD, but DSPBR Equity is a better one
Fidelity Equity 17% - GOOD
Templeton India Growth 17% - SKIP
Sundaram Select Midcap 17% - SKIP and replace with IDFC Premier equity plan A.
You can add Reliance Reg savings balanced fund to your wife's portfolio.

Always invest using SIP on different dates of the month. Check back with us in 1 year's time.
 
#4
Hi Yodlee,

Many thanks for your valuable suggestions. However, some responses to your queries/suggestions as below:

BSL Dividend Plus 10% - GOOD, but do u want a dividend fund?
This is a mid and small cap fund with similar options for Growth and Dividend as any other fund. Only the name is Dividend Plus.

HDFC Top 200 SIP 15% - GOOD, but can be skipped if u have HDFC prudence
HDFC Top 200 is a Equity Large and Mid cap fund where as Prudence is a Balanced fund. Any reason why you suggested to skip this fund as I have prudence already? Can you please elaborate?


DSPBR Small and Midcap Fund 15% - GOOD, and can be replaced with IDFC Premier equity plan A.
Sundaram Select Midcap 17% - SKIP and replace with IDFC Premier equity plan A.

I choose these 2 funds as IDFC Premier Equity is closed for subscription as well as SIP last time I checked. I am not aware of any other avenue to invest into this fund. Can you please suggest any other alternatives?

HDFC Childrens Gift Investment 17% - SKIP
I choose this fund as a balanced fund option and with HDFC prudence already part of my portfolio, didn't want to repeat the same in my wife's portfolio. HDFC Balanced and DSPBR Balanced are other alternatives, but since this fund was equally good, I choose the same. What do you feel about the rationale?

HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund SIP 10% - SKIP
I wanted to increase my mid-cap exposure and without alternatives to IDFC Premier Equity Fund, I choose alternative. Any alternatives?

Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6% - SKIP
I have a last few SIPs left out and hence, continuing till last logical point.

I have benefited from your insights, but any further inputs will solidify my understanding and thought process.

Thanks in advance.
 

yodlee99

Active Member
#5
As I said earlier, your original portfolio is ok. I have made a few suggstions to make it work better. You should diversify across fund houses as there is a tilt towards HDFC here, even though it has some good funds. Within that, both HDFC prudence and Top 200 have similar portfolios, managed by the same manager and have given identical returns in the past, though they have different mandates. If you have 1, you don't need the other.... but if you like both, I won't stop you.
There is also a strong tilt towards Mid & small cap funds. Though they give better returns, they follow "high returns for high risk" pattern. Keep less than 40% in mid & small cap funds.

http://valueresearchonline.com/funds/funddetails.asp?schemecode=2886
This link says that you need a minimum of 2000Rs & 6 months of SIP. If this doesnot work, call the IDFC customer service.
I would highly suggest you to read more posts in this forum.
 
#6
Hi Yodlee,

Many thanks for your valuable suggestions. Regarding IDFC Premier Equity, I just wanted to be more specific. I use HDFC ISA and when I tried to invest, I found that there was a message which prohibited fresh subscriptions or SIP into this fund. I did observe some fund messages which conveyed the same(http://valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=14079). In any case, I will check with their customer service.

Based on your inputs and some further realignment, I have revamped our portfolios as below:

Portfolio for my wife:
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 13%
Reliance Regular Savings Balanced 17%
HDFC Equity 17%
Fidelity Equity 17%
Templeton India Growth 17%
Sundaram Select Midcap 17%

Portfolio for me:
BSL Frontline Equity 14%
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 9%
HDFC Prudence SIP 14%
IDFC Premier Equity Plan 14%
HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund SIP 9%
HDFC Top 200 SIP 14%
ICICI Pru Discovery 9%
DSPBR Small and Midcap Fund 9%
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6%

Please note that some of these SIPs may be in vogue and hence, will take some time for realigning the same with some of the other funds.

Thanks for your all valuable inputs. Please provide any final thoughts on my revamped portfolio.

Happy Investing
 

yodlee99

Active Member
#7
I would like to clearly state that I am not very impressed with Sundaram Select focus's performances. It has just 2 stars from VROL:
http://valueresearchonline.com/funds/fundperformance.asp?schemecode=1384

You have over-diversified and need just 4-5 funds. You still have 41% of your portfolio in mid & small caps which fall under high-risk category. Keep it within 20%. Remember that markets have corrections and these funds are highly affected then and take longer to recover also.
BSL Frontline Equity 14% -> Make it 20%
DSPBR Top 100 SIP 9% -> Make it 20%
HDFC Prudence SIP 14% -> Make it 20%
IDFC Premier Equity Plan 14% -> Make it 10%
HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities Fund SIP 9% -> SKIP
HDFC Top 200 SIP 14% -> Make it 20%
ICICI Pru Discovery 9% -> SKIP
DSPBR Small and Midcap Fund 9% -> Make it 10%
Sundaram Select Focus SIP 6% -> SKIP

Your wife's portfolio would look better if you skip Sundaram Select Focus.
 

asterix24

Active Member
#8
Hi Yodlee,

Sundaram Select Focus is something I will definitely revisit once it's current SIP term is over. I have only a couple of months for closure and hence, I am not upto the effort required to STOP the SIP (Unfortunately, I did a offline physical form based investment and hence, requires some effort to stop the SIP).

Coming to Mid and Small cap funds, I would like clarify that I indeed want to get a higher exposure into this area. My previous funds were more Large cap oriented and hence, the need for investing into mid and small cap was a strategy. I am 32 and have decent diversification across fund types and fund houses (though a bias towards HDFC is present as you have rightly pointed out :) )

ICICI Pru Discovery has 4 stars and HDFC Mid-cap Opportunities have 5 stars from VROL. Any reason why you advocate not to invest into these funds? I will definitely take your inputs, but my question is more on the knowledge enhancement side. I was surprised at these 2 comments and hence, wanted to check with you.

Thanks for your inputs so far. Happy Investing !!
 

yodlee99

Active Member
#9
Understand that all your funds are good. There are probably a few 10's upto 100 funds that can be classified as "good". But my to you is: would u invest in every one of them? Not neceassarily.
I am operating under the assumption that the funds that have mentioned are the only ones that you have. If you have more, please list them all.
I am also presuming that having 1 of a total of 4-5 funds in the mid&small cap category is good. If you cannot enter SIP in IDFC PEF, invest in ICICI discovery or Reliance growth or HDFC Midcap opportunities, but NOT in all of them. I will leave upto you to decide which one of these is a good one, but one does not have to over-diversify by investing in all of these.
 
#10
These are the only funds in which I have invested in or proposed to invest. Hence, I understand your point about over diversification. Thanks for your inputs to take an informed decision.

Happy Investing!!