Mutual Fund companies are running the Investor education programs. While many Asset Management Companies (AMCs) have started fresh campaigns others are continuing with their old campaigns. If you are wondering why sudden surge in the investor education? Then let us clarify that the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) ruled that all fund houses must spend at least two basis points(.02%) of their overall total expense ratio on investor education. That is about 160 crore just to spread financial awareness. Let’s take stock of these Investor Education Programs. Each of them have their own Investor education website too. If these investor education programs are helpful,useful? Is this what investors want?
Table of Contents
Birla Mutual Fund : Jaano to Maano
Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has produced fun-filled messages with Jaanoge tabhi toh Maanoge tag during the breaks in radio programmes to educate investors on mutual fund investing and have also been asking investors to visit their investor education website www.janotohmano.com for further mutual fund investment related education material.
Rational behind the three advertising films are three key barriers that prevent people from investing in mutual funds.
- The first barrier is that people think it’s about quick returns,
- The second is that people believe one needs a lot of money to invest in mutual funds.
- Thirdly, they believe it’s about equity, high risk and therefore not for me
The first ad film addresses the first barrier of quick returns. The first film shows an eatery, where a waiter taking the order of a group of men says he’ll bring their food in two minutes. One of the men in the group stops him to ask if the food has been kept ready since the previous day. He tells the waiter to take his time, but to ensure that the food is good. A man at another table picks up from there, and explains to viewers that just as it is with food, mutual funds investments too take time to deliver good returns. He adds that people will believe this only if they are made aware – and urges viewers to visit jaanotohmaano.com.
DSP BlackRock : Plan F
Plan F is DSP BlackRock’s TV investor education series aired every weekend on CNBC TV 18 in collaboration with Jag investor. Investment experts evaluate and rate the fitness of the financial plans of investors from across India. You gain from their insights and their expertise, by understanding how to get the most out of your hard-earned money, in a much better manner. More videos,downloads at DSP Blackrock Plan F website.
DSP BlackRock has its initiative Winvestor to inspire women of all income levels and ages to empower themselves with financial knowledge. They did a special TV initiative Sheconomy with CNBC TV 18 to guide new age, independent women to learn wealth creation strategies and become better investors.
Franklin Mutual Fund :
The Franklin Templeton Academy is online investor and advisor education & awareness initiative about building awareness of Mutual Funds and promoting the benefits of investing and financial planning. Their website Franklin Investor Education website with interesting Videos and courses
Franklin Templeton Investor education
HDFC Mutual Fund
HDFC Mutual Fund’s Investor Education and Awareness Initiatives (IEAI) positions Mutual Funds as a new way of saving and also to protect the interest of investors. The objective of IEAI is to provide insightful knowledge and information to investors about investing in mutual funds and thereby enable them to take informed investment decisions. They also run some investor awareness programs schedule of which can be found at their webpage Schedule for Investor Awareness Program.
ICICIPru Mutual Fund : Invest Correctly
An initiative to empower mutual fund investors by providing them with the right information to make informed investment decisions with videos like What does a burnt Aloo Paratha teach us? Paranthas cooked by mother are great because she is expert.
IDFC Mutual Fund : One Idiot and more
IDFC communicated about financial literacy through One Idiot, a movie that educates college students about financial literacy. The movie has also evolved into a website by the same name oneidiot.in, which tries to make finance easy. The fund house has also adopted interesting methods like blogs, videos, cartoons and social media linkages to propagate financial literacy. They have come out of movies like One Idiot directed by Amol Gupte of Stanley ka Dabba fame, writer of Taare Zameen Par. Review of movie One Idiot by IDFC, Short films : World According to One Idiot
Kotak Mutual Fund
Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund is using a combination of mass media campaigns with ground events. It has held these events in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat and plans to cover more states. The print campaign asking my SIP is 8 years old what about you? As shown in image below. They also have a investor awareness initiative FaydeLal ke Funde and Website called
Kotak-Investor-education
Quantum Mutual Fund : Path to Profit
Path to Profit is an investor education initiative by Quantum Asset Management Co Pvt Ltd. They travel across various cities in India and guide investor, both existing and potential through investment process. More details at their website Path to Profit
Reliance Mutual Fund : Smart Money
Reliance have now come up with Balwinder, Sukhwinder series where Balwinder explains to Sukhwinder about WHAT ARE MUTUAL FUNDS, FINANCIAL PLANNING, UNDERSTANDING SIP, FINANCIAL HEALTH CHECKUP Their Investor Education Website
Reliance Investor Education Program
SBI Investor Education Program : SBI Fund Guru
SBI Mutual Fund’s investor education campaign named as SBI Fund Guru is a warm, friendly and welcoming mascot, makes us understand mutual funds as an asset class and in turn help savers benefit from it. It is multi-lingual, multi-media campaign. SBI Mutual Fund plans to showcase SBI Fund Guru extensively across the digital, Radio, print and during the on ground activations. SBI Fund Guru Campaign in essence, creates that identity not just for SBI Mutual Fund, but for the Mutual Fund category itself. SBI Mutual Fund, through the SBI Fund Guru campaign, plans to penetrate into the Tier II and Tier III cities of the country. SBI MUTUL Fund website SBI Fund Guru
SBI Fund Guru
Tata Mutual Fund : Professor Simply Simple
Tata Mutual Fund has created quiz programmes for college students and simplified mutual fund concepts with characters like Professor Simply Simple to make youngsters aware of financial planning and make them informed much before they start earning. Tata Mutual Fund Prof Simply Simple Webpage with lessons and videos for ex Animations featuring Prof Simple Simple (explains about Fiscal Deficit, Oil Bonds). They are also running a daily quiz called Simply Finance. Given the popularity of Prof. Simply Simple a book was published by CNBC became a best seller selling more than 50,000 copies. They also had Simply Finance Quiz is an exclusive inter-collegiate nationwide quiz competition on finance.
Tata Mutual Fund Prof Simply Simple
UTI Mutual Fund : Swantantra
Back in 2010, UTI Mutual Fund partnered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for its investor awareness drive called Swantantra. An integral part of the drive was the UTI Knowledge Caravan which criss- crossed the country covering 48,000 km and 500 towns. UTI also publishes a full page covering basics on investments and savings in Times of India (TOI) every Tuesday. It has also come out with multi-language literature that explains investments in a simple jargon-free manner. The fund house now plans to hold investor camps across the country in partnership with TOI. UTI Mutual Fund has won many awards such as Best Investor Education for its Investor Education Initiative called Swantantra by Asia Asset Management under the category Best of the Best Country Awards-2011 -India.
Related Articles:
- Review of movie One Idiot by IDFC
- Videos on Money
- Money Awareness for Beginners
- Personal Finance and Scott Adams,Dilbert
- Personal Finance Books For Adults, Books on Money for Children
These Investor education initiatives are step in the right direction. But is focussing only on Mutual Funds the way to educate investors? What format do most of people want- Movie, quiz, case studies, videos,infographics?Whose Investor education program you had heard about or you follow? Which one do you like.
