Templeton - Steady Returns & Efficient Service. Review on Templeton Asset

Templeton Mutual Fund is among the three largest private mutual funds in India and in my opinion has very good service, though the returns they generate particularly on equity funds may not be as spectacular as those generated by some other private mutual funds. Templeton advises its investors to follow a disciplined approach to saving and investing and uses the same approach to generate reasonable but consistent returns on all its funds. Templeton has recently received the Best Fund House award in one of the ratings of the mutual fund industry and this is definitely in recognition of their overall performance that includes service orientation, choice of offerings to investors, innovation and most importantly good and steady returns on investments by investors.

Among their funds, it is preferable to go in for their debt oriented funds, particularly the Income Fund which has been among the top performers in its category over the past more than three years. Annual returns ranging from 10-14% are assured to a great extent on the Income Fund. Among their equity funds, it is the Templeton India Growth Fund, which is a well-diversified fund that has been returning steady returns over the past three years. For risk averse investors, who still wish to invest in equity, Templeton now has two funds – an ordinary index-based fund and an index-based tax-saving fund. The second fund is for investors seeking equity linked saving schemes (ELSS) to get a 20% deduction in tax under Section 88. Both index-linked funds are good bets for generating consistent returns, because they are linked to one of the indices of the stock market - all returns are thus very closely linked to the change in the stock market index. Templeton is the only mutual fund with two offerings in the index- based fund category and their launching two such funds is proof of their commitment to innovation for providing choice of investment category to investors.

Templeton’s customer orientation is discernible from many small things that ultimately make a big difference to investors. The minimum investment in their funds has been kept at Rs.2,000 which is lesser than what many other fund houses require. Secondly, Templeton Mutual Fund is one of the few funds that accept cheques from investors in any part of India – in stark contrast to most, if not all funds in India insisting on cheques being issued only on major cities. This lenient measure of Templeton helps investors in any small or big village or town in India, with a bank account, to invest in Templeton’s funds. The third and most attractive feature of Templeton’s investment facilities is the Simplified Investment Plan (SIP) – which is akin to a recurring deposit facility at a bank. Through the SIP, an investor can issue post dated cheques for a specified period, either four quarterly cheques or six monthly cheques or twelve monthly cheques to be invested in the fund of the investor’s choice, once every quarter or once every month. This is the disciplined approach to investment that Templeton emphasizes and helps mutual fund investors average the price of fund units purchased irrespective of whether the financial markets are going up or down. The fourth reason to use Templeton for investments is the ease of transacting with them. All transactions right from making the first investment, to starting a SIP to requesting for redemption of units held to having one’s address changed can all be done by mailing the required documents to Templeton from one’s home or office.

I have had the opportunity to use their redemption facility and found that Templeton keeps up to its promise of redemption cheques being mailed to investors within 3 days of the request reaching Templeton. Templeton’s use of email is also very good and if a investor has provided them an email address, Templeton keeps investors informed of all transactions on the investors account by email. Responses to email to Templeton are prompt and aimed at resolving customer’s queries or problems. Lastly, Templeton’s quarterly newsletter is simple to read and easy to understand and discloses the portfolio of all its investments.

If you are a risk-averse investor, Templeton is an ideal fund for you, to help you to invest regularly and obtain consistent returns, irrespective of whether the markets are up or down.