Scribox, Fundsindia and ZIPSIP – Which is the best mutual fund platform for SIP?
Last week there was a request from one of the blog readers indicating which is the best platform to invest mutual funds SIP’s among Scripbox, Fundsindia and ZIPSIP of Myuniverse? While the answer is not plain simple, I thought I can provide features, pros and cons about all these products at one place. What are the pros and cons of investing through Scripbox? What are the positives and negative factors of investing in Fundsindia? Does ZIPSIP from Myuniverse is a better mutual fund platform to invest your mutual fund SIP’s?
Before I jump into which is good and which is not, let us first check what they all about and what their features are.
a) About Scripbox Mutual fund platform
Scripbox is a mutual fund platform where automated mutual fund recommendations are given and investors can invest in pre-defined mutual fund portfolio. It claims that it is India’s most advanced investment platform.
Features of Scripbox Mutual fund platform
- It offers a mutual fund investment platform where one can invest with zero transaction fees.
- Scripbox would get trial fees from mutual fund companies directly. Such trial fees are paid by the mutual fund company through their AMC charges. No extra charges for mutual fund investors.
- Scripbox would recommend a portfolio of 8 mutual funds. 4 are equity funds which are mostly large cap funds, 2 are debt fund and 2 are tax saving mutual funds.
- I heard from some of the readers that it allows to invest in own funds other than these 8 mutual fund schemes.
How does the Scripbox mutual fund platform work exactly?
- Scripbox recommends only 8 mutual funds to be part of the portfolio.
- 4 mutual funds are for long terms of > 5 years.
- 2 short term mutual funds for < 5 years
- 2 tax saving mutual funds.
- Scripbox would review these funds every year and make changes. It would allow you to sell any dropped mutual funds and reinvest the withdrawn amount in new funds.
- Currently Scripbox recommends 4 equity diversified funds, i.e. SBI Blue Chip Fund, ICICI Pru Value Discovery fund, Kotak Select Focus and UTI equity fund.
- Scripbox recommends 2 debt funds, i.e. Birla Sunlife Dynamic Bond fund and Reliance money manager fund. I have been investing in these funds for several years for my liquidity / short term money.
- Scripbox recommends 2 ELSS tax saver funds, i.e. Axis long term equity fund and DSP BR Tax Saver Fund. I have been recommending these good ELSS Mutual funds for several years on this blog.
How Scripbox select its funds?
- It claims to select funds based on various parameters.
- Select funds based on growth options.
- Eliminate small funds to avoid sudden redemption pressure.
- Funds that have good performance records of over 5 years.
- Diversified mutual funds only
- Funds that are highly ranked compared to benchmark.
- Limiting funds from a single mutual fund company.
- If you observe, most of the parameters are considered by me when I recommend a mutual fund scheme. The big difference is they are recommending only diversified funds, including large cap. However, if you want to get good returns from your portfolio based on your risk appetite, you need to add mid-cap/small cap funds, balanced funds and sector based funds in your portfolio. This is the biggest drawback in Scripbox portfolio recommendations.
b) About Fundindia Mutual fund platform
Now, let us come to Fundsindia mutual fund platform.
- This too offers a mutual fund investment platform where one can invest which zero transaction fees.
- Fundsindia would get trial fees from mutual fund companies directly. Such trial fees are paid by the mutual fund company through their AMC charges. No extra charges for mutual fund investors.
- Fundindia would recommend a portfolio of 3-4 mutual funds based on selected financial goal like a child's education, retirement, wealth builder etc.,
- One can invest in own funds.
Also Read: Is it safe to invest in Fundsindia mutual fund platform?
How does Fundsindia mutual fund platform work exactly?
Fundsindia recommends mutual funds based on the financial goal selection.
Children Education: If you select this portfolio recommendation, Fundsindia would recommend 3 mutual funds to invest, equity, balanced and debt fund. Here are the current recommendations from them.
- Franklin India Blue Chip – 40%
- HDFC Balanced fund – 40%
- Birla SL Dynamic Bond fund Chip – 20%
If you want to earn ₹ 10 Lakhs for child education (as an example) in 10 years, it indicates that an approx ₹ 4,900 per month to be invested.
Retirement planning: If you select this portfolio recommendation, Fundsindia would recommend 4 mutual funds to invest, 2 equity funds and 2 debt funds. Here are the current recommendations from them.
- Franklin India Blue Chip – 40%
- UTI Opportunities fund – 20%
- HDFC MIP fund – 20%
- Birla SL Dynamic Bond fund Chip – 20%
If you want to earn ₹ 1 Crore for retirement in 10 years (as an example), it indicates that an approx ₹ 50,000 per month to be invested.
Wealth Builder: If you select this portfolio recommendation, Fundsindia would recommend 4 mutual funds to invest, 2 equity funds and 2 debt fund. Here are the current recommendations from them.
- ICICI Focussed Blue Chip fund – 30%
- Miral Asset India Opps fund – 30%
- Birla SL Dynamic Bond fund Chip – 20%
- HDFC Medium Term Opps fund – 20%
If you want to earn ₹ 1 Crore for retirement in 10 years (as an example), it indicates that an approx ₹ 50,000 per month to be invested.
Views on Fundindia portfolio
If you observe, even fundsindia does not recommend mid-cap/small cap, balanced funds and sector based funds. However, such funds should be made part of your portfolio based on your risk appetite to grow your money faster.
c) ZIPSIP – Myuniverse – Mutual fund platform
Now let us quickly run through ZIPSIP Myuniverse mutual fund platform. This is part of Aditya Birla Money.
- Zipsip offers investors to invest in mutual funds in predefined portfolio.
- It would recommend a mutual fund portfolio based on your age, risk appetite and financial goals.
- You cannot modify your mutual fund portfolio and cannot invest in own funds.
- I could see various limitation factors in ZIPSIP, hence not covering much
Also Read: How SIP Investments can be done through ZIPSIP?
Scripbox, Fundsindia and ZIPSIP – Which is the best mutual fund platform for SIP?
I would leave about ZIPSIP as it has some limitation factors compared to other two. If we compare Scripbox and Fundsindia, both have its unique factors.
- Both offers zero free transaction charges.
- Both of them offer recommended portfolios.
- One can invest in own funds from these 2 mutual fund platforms.
Positives of Fundsindia over Scripbox
FundsIndia is one of the trusted mutual fund platform by many investors. Fundsindia offers features to invest in stocks, bonds , etc. One need not go to other investment platforms if they are investing in various investment options. On the other side, Scripbox offers only mutual fund investments. Second major point is Scripbox would change these recommended portfolio every year. Mutual fund investment returns cannot be judged with short term performance. If they keep changing portfolio, your mutual fund returns could be lowered. Fundsindia recommends one portfolio and it gets executed during the tenure.
Positives of Scripbox over Fundindia
Scripbox offers a diversified portfolio of mutual fund, which has equity, debt and tax savings. If you do not have time, but want experts to manage your portfolio, scripbox works better for you. If you want to invest in ELSS tax saving mutual funds as part of your investment, Scripbox could be a good option.
My view about these mutual fund investment platforms
I am not in favour of these mutual fund platforms. If you have some time, do your own research on mutual funds and invest in those funds. You should consider your age, risk appetite and financial goals when picking up right mutual funds. Invest in funds that performed well in longer run of over 10 years. Investing in such funds through direct plans could be a better option. Investing in your own researched funds through Fundsindia or Scripbox could also be an alternative option as you can save transaction charges. However, if you are too busy in your life and cannot plan for your investments, you can consider opting for fundsindia or scripbox robotic portfolio recommendations. That should be your last option.
As of now, I have not invested through these platforms. In coming weeks, I want to register myself and want to test by investing small amounts in these platforms to understand them better. If I have better view, I would update this article in the coming months .
Readers, what is your view on Scripbox? Have you invested through Fundsindia? What are your experiences about these mutual fund platforms?
If you enjoyed this article, share it with your friends and colleagues through Facebook and Twitter.
Suresh
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dear sir,
many thanks for your valuable research.
pl. share your views regd. upwardly, groww, ET Money, Paytm.
looking for your early reply.
Great list. Let me put them in an article in next couple of weeks.
Hi Suresh , In SWP plan is true I would have to pay short term capital gains as well as long term capital gain. It's confusing . They say SWP plan is better than MONTHLY INCOME PLAN. But playing double taxation is too much
Hi Krishnamurthi, From Apr-18, you would pay short term capital gains (< 1 year) as well as long term capital gains after 1 year (returns after 1 year). In dividend plans there is no capital gains, however we would not get fixed income. Under SWP, we can withdraw fixed amount irrespective whether we would have got returns or not. so, if you get returns after 1 year, you would pay LTCG after Rs 1 Lakh exemption.
Hi Suresh,
I request you to compare even ArthaYantra with Scripbox and FundIndia. Their portfolio gives higher returns than Scripbox and FundIndia. I have invested with them and service is also good.
Hello Suresh garu,
Have you tried any one of FundsIndia, Scribox, Unovest, MFUtility, ICICIDirect? this is the first time I am trying to invest in ELSS funds. Could you please guide me how do I start with? I have no knowledge on mutual funds.
Nice article
If you want to invest in multiple mutual fund AMC’s to diversify your risk,i recommend to go thru third party platforms.
Sir I am investing through Funds India.
Request you to please do a detailed post on how to invest in direct plans. Thanks
By approaching the mutual fund companies directly.
Try Bharosa club.
Suresh please review Arthayantra in the same way. Artha does the financial review and planning for the customer. If invested through their portal they only charge Rs. 1000 for the lifetime since they earn commission from AMC. But I still request you to please review their services. Thanks
You have mentioned that transaction charges can be saved by investing through two of the above suggested platforms.
What are the transaction charges?
I have never incurred such transaction charges. Neither Distributor/Broker charged nor such charges are applicable under the Direct plans.
Using MF Utility I found better because there are no charges at all. It has all features of transactions. Most of all, you can also transact in direct schemes.
I have used FundsIndia for a while now. My impressions:
Positives:
It is a good platform if you are not the tinkerer type but “fire & forget” type.
Their recommendation of funds are usually conservative (Bluechip types) and not high beta/high alpha funds.
FundsIndia recommends creating a portfolio for each goal with some 3-4 funds per portfolio.
They offer a curated list of top funds. You can accept their robo-advisory or consultant (manual) advisory or ignore both and create your own portfolios. They also offer regular, stepup & Value SIPs. Fantastic flexibility.
The other plus for F.I is the ability to invest in stocks, bonds, NCDs, IPOs, gold, e-Insurance etc fully online.
You can have multiple investors from your family using the same login. So it really simplifies investing for those who manage investing for wife/parents too.
I’d say their blog with fund/market analysis is a must read (freely available for all)
Negatives:
My past experience with their support has been excellent, but nowadays the support quality has deteriotated – is that due to company expanding rapidly?. But probably they are still good enough, I think
They allow only “regular” MF and not “direct” MFs.
Some of my suggestions for portal (software) improvements were rejected without proper discussion 🙁
Hello
Thanks for the comparison and review. I invest through FundsIndia. I find the platform good. It gives you flexibility to build your own portfolio with the help of their SIP designer. But I do have one question. What if one individual has more than one goal? Should he invest in ‘n’ number of funds suggested by FundsIndia for each goal?
As for Scripbox, it may rejig the portfolio every calendar year. one may lose rupee cost averaging due to this. Also what should be done with the units accumulated in the funds in the preceding year? should the amount be reinvested as lump sum in the newly suggested fund?
Hi Prasad. Here are my comments 1) If you have more than one goal, and want to go with fundsindia, yes you need to create those goals and then invest thrugh SIP in those funds. This way your goals are clear and investments are also clear 2) Like i indicated earlier, Scripbox always reviews funds every year. While this could be good to check if any funds are under performing, reviewing such portfolio every year and making changes may not be a good idea. They suggest to invest funds in new fund lumpsum which is also risky.
Thank you for the prompt reply.
In case of goal planning with FundsIndia SIP designer, there will be too many funds in the portfolio which may not necessarily lead to
diversification. What is the way out?
As you rightly said it is risky to invest accumulated corpus in a new fund suggested by Scirpbox. This isn’t in favour of the investor. This favors only the platform in form of higher upfront commission.
Suresh
Please explain how Ultra Short term funds works and advise me how to invest in these funds including your suggestion of best funds in this sector. This is for
Thanks,
Partha
HI Suresh,
I am NRI and opened the MF account in Zerodha. Its a normal account like Indian Residents not NRE type. Is there any legal issue associated with that?? I have already started investing the money in MFs in this account.
Regards
Arjeet
Adding to what you said, In fundsIndia if you would like to invest on stocks, bonds, you need to pay AMC charges (I think its Rs.400 per year) additionally.
Thanks for the wonderful review
Why did you not include MF Utility? I think that allows a very convenient system for investors and distributors. Please check and let us know about it.
This review is about mutual fund platforms offered by companies. MF utility is yet to get maturity. Yes I do agree there are several positive points out of it
I strongly feel one should open CAN account though MFU india and invest through mfuonline.com as it gives platform to invest in 25 different AMCs thorugh direct plans at free of cost. But one should be aware of different mutual funds to invest after doing research.
Hi Prakash –
Will this CAN number also enable me to purchase funds from portals such as funds India?
Thanks,
Mukesh
Thanks for the recommendation Suresh. I have applied for both of them lets see 🙂
i think, investment through both platforms is not Direct , they offer regular schemes only. So , they earn trailing commission from the AMC concerned. I understand, there are some platforms working as Aggregaters of most mutual funds’ AMC and also advising with a small fee from investors. But there, the investments are Direct. Overall, they would be cost efficient to the investors .
can we invest in direct schemes through fundsindia ?
No Anurag
Sir ,ZIPSIP is a part of myuniverse , where you can select the funds you want to invest just like fundsindia or scripbox .
ZIPSIP is integrated tool which helps to recommend the funds based on age /risk/goal.
Did you check Aarthyantra, they provide access to Direct Plans through their platform, as per my discussion with them. Their charges are not much if you need help, 1000 Rs a year.
I have invested through Fundsindia and here is my review.
* They do all paperwork for you.
* There is no call or torture or whatsoever. Initially they asked to initiate at least one transaction. That’s it.
* I have chosen funds based on my research and invested. You will be assigned a dedicated advisor. You can ask their advice also. You can simply request for a call back through online platform.
* The only negative I found is the time taken to process the transaction. Even if the SIP amount gets debited before the cut off time, you will get next day NAV and not the same day NAV.
So far good.