Retirement is an inescapable truth of life. It is a phase of life where your regular source of income (salary or income from business or profession) will stop, and you will have to depend on certain investments made to meet your expenses.

Given the spiralling inflation, rise in medical expenses (India has the highest medical inflation rate of 14%), you need to make sensible investments today to live the winter years of your life in bliss. You cannot procrastinate or think about retirement planning when you are nearing retirement. It can create havoc if one doesn’t plan for retirement well in time. Moreover, the rise in the national life expectancy to nearly 70 years makes it indispensable to have a retirement fund to capitalize on financial stability post-retirement age.

To invest for blissful retirement, you have plenty of choices – Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Pension System, Bank Fixed Deposits, etc. However, when it comes to retirement planning, broaden your horizons and consider investing in solution-oriented Retirement Funds under mutual funds rather than just sticking to traditional investment routes.

Mutual Funds, as you may know, are one of the potent avenues for wealth creation. That said, make sure you invest in the best and most suitable ones assessing their risk-reward and a bunch of other quantitative and qualitative parameters. You may consider the Solution-oriented Funds like ‘retirement fund’ for your retirement planning.

Union Mutual Fund has launched Union Retirement Fund, it is an open-ended retirement solution-oriented scheme having a lock-in of 5 years or till retirement age (whichever is earlier).

On the launch of this fund, Mr G Pradeepkumar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Union AMC, said, “Union Retirement Fund is not just an NFO. It is a bugle that calls for serious introspection amongst all stakeholders to dovetail Aspiration planning with Financial planning. Renewment planning is how one meticulously plans for Freedom in a disciplined manner. It goes beyond just planning for the pursuit or accumulation of wealth.”

Table 1: Table 1: Union Retirement Fund

(Source: Scheme Information Document)

The investment strategy for Union Retirement Fund will be as follows:

Union Retirement Fund seeks to generate long-term capital gains by investing in a mix of securities comprising of equity, equity-related securities and debt instruments as per the asset allocation pattern of the Scheme with a view to provide a retirement investment solution to investors.

The scheme comes with a compulsory lock-in period of 5 years or retirement age whichever is earlier with an equity investment plan which helps investors achieve their life goals. The Scheme will invest a minimum of 65% of its net assets in equity and equity-related securities, which in the opinion of the Fund Manager offers a superior risk-reward payoff. The portfolio of the scheme will be constructed based on a combination of the top-down and bottom-up approaches.

The Fund Manager has the discretion to invest in equity and equity-related instruments, debt and money market instruments and such other securities as specified, in line with the asset allocation pattern of the Scheme and within stipulated limits and by adhering to various norms and regulations.

The fund manager could use derivatives within the permissible limits for hedging and rebalancing the portfolio or such other purpose as may be permitted under the Regulations from time to time. Investment in debt securities will be guided by credit quality, liquidity, interest rates and their outlook. The Scheme may also invest in the units of REITs and InvITs for diversification, subject to conditions prescribed by SEBI from time to time.

Under normal circumstances, the asset allocation will be as under:

Table 2: Table 2: Asset Allocation for Union Retirement Fund

(Source: Scheme Information Document)

About the benchmark

The S&P BSE 500 index is designed to be a broad representation of the Indian market. Consisting of the top 500 companies listed at BSE Ltd., the index covers all major industries in the Indian economy. It is calculated using a float-adjusted, market-cap-weighted methodology.

Who will manage the Union Retirement Fund?

Mr Vinay Paharia and Mr Sanjay Bembalkar will be the designated fund managers for this scheme.

Mr Vinay Paharia holds B.com and M.M.S. degrees and has over 20 years of experience in Fund Management. Prior to joining Union AMC, he has worked with Invesco Asset Management (India) Private Ltd. as Fund Manager – Equity, DBS Cholamandalam AMC as an Equity Research Analyst, K R Choksey Shares and Securities Pvt Ltd as an Equity Research Analyst and First Global Stockbroking Pvt Ltd as an Equity Research Analyst.

At Union Mutual Fund, Mr Paharia currently manages Union Flexi Cap Fund, Union Value Discovery Fund, Union Focused Fund, Union Balanced Advantage Fund, Union Equity Savings Fund, Union Long Term Equity Fund, Union Large cap Fund, Union Large & Midcap Fund, Union Small Cap Fund, Union Midcap Fund and Union Hybrid Equity Fund.

Mr Sanjay Bembalkar is a CFA charter holder with the CFA Institute (USA), a Chartered Accountant and holds M.Sc. (Accounting and Finance) and B.com degrees. He has over 15 years of experience in the field of Equity Research and Fund Management. Prior to joining Union AMC, he was associated with Canara Robeco Asset Management Company Limited as Fund Manager – Equities and before that as Research Analyst – Equity, with LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Ltd. as Research Analyst – Equity and with Quantum Advisors Pvt. Ltd. as Assistant Vice President (Equity Research).

At Union Mutual Fund, Mr Bembalkar currently manages Union Large cap Fund, Union Long Term Equity Fund and Union Value Discovery Fund.

Fund Outlook – Union Retirement Fund

Union Retirement Fund aims to invest in equity and equity-related securities and debt instruments as per the asset allocation pattern of the scheme with a view to provide a retirement investment solution to investors. The scheme comes with a mandatory lock-in of 5 years or retirement age, whichever is earlier.

The scheme offers goal-based investing which helps to accumulate the required amount of corpus for your retirement and benefit of long-term equity taxation. The 5-year lock-in reduces the impact of high market volatility and helps the investor stay invested in turbulent times. Building a separate corpus for retirement helps investors to hold it till they actually retire. The equity portion in the scheme will be run like a regular diversified equity fund, which will look for opportunities across different market caps and sectors.

Although the scheme offers investors with an opportunity to build their retirement corpus with a goal-based investing approach, it is still prone to high market risks. The scheme being actively managed, the fund manager’s ability to construct the portfolio remains to be seen. If the fund managers’ convictions prove worthy, investors are likely to benefit from optimal returns. But if the bet goes awry, investors may suffer heavy losses.

In addition, the persistent repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, spiralling inflation and the RBI’s recent hike in policy rates again by 50 basis points to curb demand and control inflation may cause a significant risk to economic growth. The margin of safety appears to be narrow, and the clear direction for the equity market from the current elevated levels is unknown. These factors,v among many others, may affect the scheme’s performance and the scheme’s portfolio may face intensified volatility in the near term.

Thus, this scheme is suitable for investors with a high-risk appetite and a long investment horizon suitable to the fund’s lock-in period. Ensure that your investment objective is congruent with the fund.

 

This article first appeared on PersonalFN here