Like in the US and Japan, mutual funds are becoming an indispensable investment avenue for Indian investors. This comprehensive handbook by an expert lays out the working of Indian mutual funds, their operational and regulatory mechanisms, the advantages and limitations of investing in them along with sensible approaches to personal financial planning. The author’s experience of handling hundreds of training programmes ensures an engaging and easy to understand approach to mastering the subject.

Highlights:

• Benefits of investing in mutual funds; how they compare with other investment avenues.

• The different types of equity, debt, balanced and liquid schemes available for investment — and the rewards and risks each one entails.

• NAV — what it reveals, its calculation and finer nuances.

• The costs of investing in mutual funds — loads, expenses and management fee.

• Investing in gold, real-estate and art through mutual funds.

• The safety net of mutual fund investing — information disclosure and investor protection stipulated by SEBI.

• Smart Beta and performance attribution.

• New in 5th Edition — SEBI's new mutual fund categories.

Sundar Sankaran is founder-director of Advantage-India Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (www.advantage-india.com) a 20-year old strategy consulting and knowledge incubation boutique. He has also founded finberry academy pvt ltd (www.finberry.org) and Stratberry Publishing (www.str atberry.com).

Sundar is renowned as an effective trainer, who can simplify concepts, and catalyse learning through linkages with day-to-day examples. He operates with equal ease at macro-level perspective programs as well as micro-drill-down programs. His programs, which cover the entire range from leadership to product to selling, are not merely for knowledge dissemination; they seek to bring change within participants, so that they are enthusiastic about the desired behaviour.

Wide experience across geographies, markets and products have helped Sundar conceptualise several unique seminars and workshops in the areas of strategy, economics, finance and financial markets. Within mutual funds, financial planning and wealth management, his programs span products, business development, selling skills, legalities and high-end data analytics.

Over the years, Sundar has trained over 20,000 participants belonging to leading mutual funds, including Kotak Mahindra, Fidelity, Standard Chartered, Canbank, Tata, LIC, UTI, SBI, HDFC, Optimix and BOB; banks, including Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI, ICICI, HDFC, Citi, Deutsche, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, Corporation Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, PNB and State Bank of Hyderabad; financial product distributors, including Kotak Securities, JM Morgan Stanley Distribution, ICICI Capital, Cholamandalam Distribution, NJ IndiaInvest, Birla Sunlife Distribution, Integrated Finance and Bajaj Capital; and the media, including The Times of India, The Economic Times, Financial Express, Business Line, CNBC, across a range of innovative programs.

Sundar is a prolific writer. He has developed the courseware and examinations for over twenty certifications offered by apex education bodies such as SEBI’s National Institute of Securities Market (NISM), National Stock Exchange’s NCFM and Indian Institute of Banking and Finance.

Sundar provides consulting and research inputs to leading corporations on their corporate structure, business plan, financial structure, performance management systems, product portfolio, channel management, customer insights, learning models and technology strategies.

Sundar has worked in senior capacities at Bajaj Auto and Kotak Mahindra. His hands-on feel of financial markets and industry is well complemented by his academic qualifications from IIM Ahmedabad (1988), IIT Bombay, RA Podar College, Mumbai, Associate of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (1992) and Associate of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (1988).

His other passions include reading, Indian classical music and travel.