The peace of mind service

Some people worry about their investments, and there are those who don't. Which is a better thing? I know that never being worried about investments sounds like a good thing, but this group is divided into two parts. One, those who are not worried because they don't invest or don't bother about their investments. Two, those who are members of Value Research Premium. Most of my readers must be smiling at my blatant pitch for this service, but it's true!

Our worry management service
We should rename Value Research Premium - it should actually be called our 'Worry Management Service' or 'Peace of Mind Service' because that's what we deliver for mutual fund investors.

The primary problem for most mutual fund investors is not that they make losses but that they do not earn as much as they want to or have hoped to. This is in sharp contrast to most of the activity in the equity markets. As many of my readers would remember, early this year, SEBI released a study that started with the sentence, "89 per cent of individual traders (i.e., 9 out of 10 traders) in the equity F&O segment incurred losses, with an average loss of Rs 1.1 lakh during FY22." No one who knew a thing about the equity markets was surprised by this. In fact, in my observation, if the traders had been tracked for a longer period, the number would have been even greater.

What is the equivalent number for equity mutual fund investors? If I look at fund returns - especially SIP returns - I believe that as long as you run an SIP in almost any diversified fund for more than three years, you will make decent returns and are highly, highly unlikely to make a loss. Once you stretch the period to more than five or so years, the situation is even better. That means the biggest worry for other types of investors - losses - does not exist for mutual fund investors.

However, that still leaves many worries for mutual fund investors. These are good worries, the kind that are not unreasonable to have.

• Will I be able to meet my financial goals?
• Are my fund choices optimised for what I want to do with my money?
• Am I diversified enough?
• Is my money appropriately allocated between different types of mutual funds?
• If any of my funds start doing worse, will I come to know? How will I know which fund to switch to?

Do you have these kinds of worries? That's what Value Research Premium will take care of. An investment advisor is supposed to do many things. For example, an advisor should assist in goal planning, portfolio construction, portfolio maintenance, and ongoing adjustments and changes. On top of that, an advisor is supposed to be a counsellor, a kind of sink for your investment worries. When you have a worry, you offload it to the advisor, who then gives you correct and truthful information about the topic. That either assuages your worry or proves it right. If it is proven right, then the advisor solves the problem.

As things stand, Value Research Premium is not this kind of an advisor until we create a ChatGPT-like interface for our system. However, the sheer wealth of packaged information we give you about your investments makes it a very potent worry management system. Consider what you get from our service.

Portfolio Analysis: Most new members already have investments, some for long periods of time. For them, a big worry is determining if their current investments align with their objectives. Answering this question can be challenging due to the numerous factors involved, such as the goal and the tax implications of altering existing investments. With our Premium service, you can receive an assessment and recommended action plan crafted by our team of experts to ensure your investments are on the right track.

Portfolio Planner: These are custom portfolios that are suggested to you as part of your premium membership.

The algorithm that we have developed takes into account your goals, income, saving capacity and a number of other factors.

Analysts' Choice: Often, investors want to choose their own funds for some particular investment purpose. Even with the help of our star rating system, it's a lot of work to zoom in on the right set of funds. However, that won't be a problem for you because, as a Premium member, you will have access to Analysts' Choice.

Instead of the official categories of mutual funds, we have created eight investor-oriented categories that match precisely with your financial goals. In each of these, my team of analysts and I have carefully selected a handful of funds that will provide you with the best outcomes.

A lot more
Naturally, the features above are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. Our platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to assist you in monitoring your investments, returns, diversification, taxes, and all other essential aspects necessary to attain your financial objectives. Take a look at Value Research Premium for the full details.