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{"id":7294,"date":"2025-03-05T06:02:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T06:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.certifiedfinancialguardian.com\/?p=7294"},"modified":"2025-03-05T06:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T06:13:15","slug":"do-you-have-overlapping-mutual-funds-in-your-portfolio-heres-what-you-need-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.certifiedfinancialguardian.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/do-you-have-overlapping-mutual-funds-in-your-portfolio-heres-what-you-need-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Have Overlapping Mutual Funds in Your Portfolio? Here\u2019s What You Need to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Diversification<\/a>, being one of the fundamental tenets of investing, is often a top priority when investing in mutual funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary objective is to minimise the risk during volatile market conditions and earn better risk-adjusted returns in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, does merely holding multiple mutual fund schemes guarantee effective diversification?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many investors, in the endeavour to diversify often keep adding mutual fund schemes to their portfolio. At times, the schemes added are of similar management styles, mandates, and\/or portfolio characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to add the scheme is made because a next-door neighbour, friend, relative, or colleague suggested investing or because some fund house has launched a new scheme and distributor\/agent recommended it for his\/her personal gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian mutual fund industry has been in a race to garner more Assets Under Management (AUM) by launching several New Fund Offers (NFOs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In CY 2024 alone, 428 New Fund Offers (NFOs)<\/a> were introduced, and as of February 28, 2025, 95 more have been launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors are often drawn to NFOs due to the Rs 10\/- proposition and hope that getting in early on would be a potentially lucrative investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many mutual fund houses too, build their product basket based on what investors are favouring rather than what would be a prudent choice for investors. For example, several fund houses launched Sector & Thematic Funds<\/a>, Small Cap Funds<\/a>, as well as Index Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (passive funds<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, investors have ended up over-crowding or over-diversifying their portfolios<\/a>. In certain cases, we have seen investors holding over 40-50 mutual fund schemes in their portfolio and, in many cases, there are overlapping holdings in terms of investment styles, market cap exposure and sectoral exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this may create an illusion of a well-diversified portfolio, in reality, this leads to mutual fund overlap<\/a>, which is counter-productive to the objective of diversification and wealth creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Mutual Fund Portfolio Overlap?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mutual fund overlap refers to a situation of duplications of securities in the portfolio. It happens when you hold two or more schemes that are investing in similar securities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Table: An Illustration of Overlapping Mutual Funds<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
Large Cap Fund 1<\/td>\n\t\t\tLarge Cap Fund 2<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
Company Name<\/td>\n\t\t\tAllocation (%)<\/td>\n\t\t\tCompany Name<\/td>\n\t\t\tAllocation (%)<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
A<\/td>\n\t\t\t8.93<\/td>\n\t\t\tA<\/td>\n\t\t\t9.90<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
D<\/td>\n\t\t\t7.54<\/td>\n\t\t\tB<\/td>\n\t\t\t8.84<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
E<\/td>\n\t\t\t7.16<\/td>\n\t\t\tD<\/td>\n\t\t\t8.14<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
B<\/td>\n\t\t\t5.50<\/td>\n\t\t\tZ<\/td>\n\t\t\t7.75<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
C<\/td>\n\t\t\t4.70<\/td>\n\t\t\tE<\/td>\n\t\t\t6.15<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
H<\/td>\n\t\t\t4.32<\/td>\n\t\t\tX<\/td>\n\t\t\t5.25<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
J<\/td>\n\t\t\t3.78<\/td>\n\t\t\tC<\/td>\n\t\t\t3.85<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
L<\/td>\n\t\t\t3.19<\/td>\n\t\t\tL<\/td>\n\t\t\t3.02<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
P<\/td>\n\t\t\t2.59<\/td>\n\t\t\tY<\/td>\n\t\t\t2.43<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t\t
S<\/td>\n\t\t\t2.03<\/td>\n\t\t\tP<\/td>\n\t\t\t2.05<\/td>\n\t\t<\/tr>\n\t<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/center>\n\n\n\n

The above table is for illustrative purposes only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see from the above illustration, the top 10 holdings of Large Cap Fund 1 and Large Cap Fund 2 have 7 stocks in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Read: Large Cap Funds vs Nifty Index Funds: Which is a Better Alternative in a Volatile Market?<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you, the investor have both these funds in the portfolio, the high overlap defeats the purpose of diversification. It exposes your investment portfolio to concentration risk, leading to polarised returns skewed towards a few sets of stocks, sectors, market cap, or investment styles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overlapping funds not only make monitoring and portfolio review\/rebalancing difficult but also results in fund management fees for similar type of funds, eating into your overall returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, it is also important to avoid concentrating your investments within a single fund house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because holding more than two or more schemes from the same fund house exposes you, the investor to ‘fund house concentration risk’. Unless the schemes are very different or unique in their investment mandate, it wouldn’t add much value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, beyond a certain point, every scheme added to your portfolio only occupies space without meaningfully lowering the risk or offering any extra benefit. Thus, consider adding a scheme to your portfolio only if it offers a unique investment mandate through its strategy and style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When it comes to investing, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all portfolio,”<\/em> aptly states Barry Ritholtz, an American author, newspaper columnist, and equity analyst. Investing is essentially an individualistic exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, ideally, when you are building your portfolio, you need to evaluate your risk profile, broader investment objectives, the financial goals you plan to address, and the time horizon needed to achieve them, rather than invest randomly. It is important to ensure that the scheme aligns with your overall investment strategy and adds genuine value to your portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Read: How to Choose Mutual Funds For Your Investment Portfolio<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid investing in any scheme simply because or next-door neighbour, friend, relative, colleague or agent is suggesting, or some NFO is launched, or for that matter, the respective category and sub-category of mutual funds have delivered better returns in the past. Keep in mind, that past returns are in no way indicative of future returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Check for Portfolio Overlap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several online tools available to check if there is a portfolio overlap<\/a> of two or more mutual fund schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You simply need to select the category and sub-category, then enter the scheme names to analyse the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tools generally provide insights into the number of common stocks, the percentage of portfolio overlap, and the unique holdings in each fund. For a sound and practical comparison, assess funds within the same category and sub-category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an investor, you should keep in mind that a certain degree of portfolio overlap cannot be avoided. The high concentration risk arises when the overlap is remarkably high, such as 65% or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Optimise Your Portfolio to Avoid Mutual Fund Overlap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re holding too many mutual fund schemes, here’s what you can do to declutter your portfolio:<\/p>\n\n\n\n