CAGRfunds Team – Page 14 – CAGRfunds

March 16, 2019February 22, 2025

PPFAS – CAGRfunds conviction recommendation

Parag Parikh Long Term Equity Fund (PPLTE) is the only equity fund that is managed by the investment team of PPFAS. As a recent entrant in the Mutual Fund Industry (fund was launched in May 2013), it is not the most popular fund in the market. At least we do not see people including them in the “Top 10 Funds to invest in 2019” list (Frankly, we find such lists to be very silly).

There are several reasons why we believe that PPLTE is a good addition to the portfolio for investors who exhibit all of the following traits:

a) Looking to add equity exposure
b) Willing to not withdraw their investments for 7-8 years
c) Keen to add some overseas diversification to their investments
d) Unwilling to risk capital erosion in lieu of high returns
e) Want to prioritize downside protection for times when markets don’t seem to be too ecstatic

If you think you are the one we are referring to, you should contact us to check if this is a worthy addition to your existing portfolio.

Reasons why we like PPLTE

Sector Allocation

Several things stand out when we look at the sector allocation of this fund.

a) 22% of the corpus is kept in liquid resources, waiting to be deployed when opportunities emerge. Some might say that this will drag returns down (since liquid resources at best earn you around 6-7%), but let us tell you that investing in businesses at a price that seems affordable is better than buying something expensive. Also, investing when one finds good businesses to invest in is also an important consideration for long term wealth generation

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price” – Warren Buffet

b) Substantial overseas exposure (~28%) adds to geographical diversification (orange bars are completely overseas). Out of this total overseas exposure, around 9.7% is in Google and 4.3% in Facebook. That adds to some real diversification to your portfolio! (Source: PPFAS Feb – March Factsheet)

Skin in the game

7.07% of the AUM represents own equity of the key persons in the fund management team. When people who are managing our funds have invested their own savings into the same, we know the commitment is for real. It is a good corporate governance practice to have their own financial being is linked with that of the investors. We give them a big thumbs up for this one.

Out-performance with focus on downside protection

As can be seen from the chart below, the fund has outperformed its benchmark (Nifty / BSE 500 TRI) at all times considering point to point returns. In terms of Alpha, the fund ranks #2 within the Multi-Cap category.

However, out-performance is not what excites us. Active funds, after all, are supposed to out-perform their respective benchmarks.

What seems interesting and commendable to us is the ability of the fund to protect the downside during times of correction. Let us look at the 3 year rolling returns of the fund. The highest rolling return is 25% and the lowest that the fund has given over a 3 year period is 10%.

This means a lot of things for you as an investor if you would have held your investment for a 3 year period at any point in time:

a) You would have generated a CAGR of at least 10% even if you would have exited at the very low point of the market which was some time in the second half of the last year

b) You would not have seen a negative return for a 3 year period on your portfolio EVER

c) You would not have lost your peace of mind over losing your money

For investors who are uncomfortable with too much volatility, the above means a lot. We believe that the reason the fund has been able to demonstrate this performance is because of its patient and down to earth fund managers – Rajeev Thakkar and Raunak Onkar. Although this is not a guarantee for the future, the above track record during testing times gives additional comfort to investors.

Mr. Thakkar is quite active on twitter and we suggest you follow him to understand his ideology if you are an existing investor or are likely to become one.

In case you have any further query, do reach out to us on contact@cagrfunds.com

November 30, 2018February 22, 2025

Do health insurance plans cover maternity expenses?

“Maternity Plans” are not really separate plans. It is a feature which may be covered under normal health plans. However, only a few health plans offer maternity cover as part of their normal health plans.

Key features of maternity cover are as follows:

There is usually a separate waiting period for maternity coverage – This means that any claims with respect to maternity will be catered to only after the maternity specific waiting period is over
Almost all plans have an upper cap on the amount of expenses that will be covered – Usually the coverage ranges from INR 25000 – 50000 per delivery. The reason most policies have an upper cap is because the number of claims for maternity is likely to be very high. The purpose of Health Insurance is to protect you from any sudden outflow of funds due to a medical emergency. The occurrence of maternity is almost certain and hence a limit on the same is warranted
Pre – maternity costs are generally not covered – Most plans which offer maternity coverage generally do not cover any expenses that are incurred towards consultancies and tests
New born coverage – Generally, the new born baby is covered till the end of policy year

Should you buy a health plan only because it provides maternity coverage?

Maternity should ideally be treated as a bonus option. The overall decision behind buying a health plan should ideally be the key features which are relevant for any kind of hospitalization. Imagine a plan providing good maternity coverage but having a claim settlement ratio of 70%. Therefore, choosing a plan just because it provides maternity coverage may not be the best decision to take.

However, in case you have a choice between two equally good plans with one of them providing maternity coverage with or without some extra premium, then it might make sense to take the plan with the maternity clause. Especially, if you are planning a kid in next few years.

Want to discuss more on maternity plans? Write to us on contact@cagrfunds.com.

Have you read about our Cancer Plans?

November 30, 2018February 22, 2025

Cancer Health Plans may be useful to consider!

A slew of niche healthcare plans have been launched recently. These plans cater to specific diseases only. Cancer Plans are one such category.

Key features which are common across various Cancer Plans are as follows:

Objective is to cover the expenses that arise out of diagnosis of any type of Cancer
Benefits are generally payable in parts basis the different stages of Cancer

Why should you buy these plans?

Well, there is no good answer to this. As we know, occurrence of Cancer is random and anyone could be a victim of the same. Some of the facts are worth being aware of:

India is the world’s largest contributor to Cancer deaths
22 lakh Cancer deaths are reported every year
71% of the Cancer deaths occur in the age group of 30 – 69 years
15% of Cancer patients are children and young adults (as compared to the global average of 0.5%)

The geographic spread of Cancer in India is largely driven by the environmental practices prevailing in respective regions:

States	Common types of Cancer	Reasons
UP, Bihar, WB	Gall Bladder, Neck and Head	Polluted water, diet rich in animal protein or fish
MP, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan	Oral	High Tobacco and Pan Masala consumption
Punjab, Haryana, Delhi	All Cancers are higher than average, especially, kidney, lungs, urinary, breast	Pollution, pesticide, toxins in food
Goa	Colon Cancer	Red Meat, Alcohol, Tobacco
WB	Lung, Urinary Bladder	Air and Water Pollution
North East	Highest Cancer Rate, especially of Oesophagus	Tobacco, Household burning of Firewood
South & Coastal India	Stomach	Diet rich in spice, salt

Is Cancer not covered in regular Health Insurance Plans?

Regular health plans do cover hospitalization for Cancer. However, Cancer treatment costs often cost anywhere between 10 – 25 lacs and only go upwards for advanced treatments. Health Plans with such high sum insured can turn out to be very expensive.

Moreover, Cancer treatments tend to continue for years and the costs have only been rising.

What about Critical Illness covers?

Cancer is also covered under Critical Illness Plans, but only at advanced stages where a lump sum is payable. Generally, most Cancer specific plans tend to pay lumpsum at multiple stages of diagnosis, thereby protecting the continuous flow of expenses.

What is the alternative?

A decent size of Base Insured Plan + A large Top Up Plan + Critical Illness may be a good alternative. However, for those who have had a first – hand experience of Cancer treatments among friends and family, might want to insure themselves against the deadly possibility. The decision depends on affordability of every individual.

How does CAGRfunds charge zero to its customers?

At CAGRfunds, we help you to invest in “Regular Plans” of Mutual Funds. As such, we earn commissions from the AMCs (Asset Management Companies) based on the value of investments that we facilitate. The commissions that we get are just one of the many components of the “Expense Ratios” of the funds. Since we get our revenues through commissions, we do not charge our clients anything.

Why we deserve what we earn?

First things first. There are no free lunches. So next time someone gives you free advice (for no consideration whatsoever) be extremely careful about betting your money on advice that has no ownership.

Expense ratios are essentially a part of earnings that are deployed towards fund expenses. Since our commissions are a part of it, we feel extremely responsible to add enough value to justify our revenues. Following is how we consistently add value to our clients:

Behavioural education – We believe that investing is more about your inherent behaviour and less about identifying the “best funds”. As normal people who are not rational at all points in time, we tend to take misguided decisions when it comes to money. Most investors often wonder when is the right time to sell as soon as markets start getting volatile. Therefore, we spend a huge amount of time educating our clients about various aspects of investing, inherent biases that they should be avoiding, the correct approach and the ideal way to plan. Throughout your investment journey, there will be times when you will need expert guidance about what action or decision they should take (A lot of our existing clients call us to ask if they should purchase XYZ policy that their bank RM has been pushing them for). And that is where we step in. So while, our very simple platform takes care of executing your transactions, we proactively take care of every small action that remains to be a humanised and personalized service. We strive to be the financial partners of our clients throughout their investment journey. We believe in being approachable and responsive to their requirements. Indeed, a human voice and a face to talk to always helps.

Customized fund recommendation – We understand that each person has different needs, objectives and preferences. Since we do not offer any standardized algorithms, our fund recommendation is purely customized to your suitability. With us, you, therefore, do not run the risk of being misguided by fund rankings and recent returns. This is extremely crucial as your objective is to meet your financial goals by investing in the most suitable funds.

Asset Allocation and rebalancing: At the start of any investment, we put down the target asset allocation of the investor. This target allocation depends on the age, investment objectives and risk profile of the investor. At the end of every year, we compare the target allocation with the current asset allocation and recommend a suitable action. The investor can either choose to follow the recommendation or set a new asset allocation target. In addition, we also proactively suggest any changes that may be required in your portfolio due to fundamental changes in fund attributes (For example, a change in fund manager may have a considerable impact on the future performance of the fund). We, therefore, spend a lot of time reviewing each portfolio in the utmost details. We, therefore, ensure that your money is optimally invested at all times.

Tax Planning: We help our investors with tax planning in multiple ways

Recommend the most suitable tax saving mutual funds under section 80C
Comprehensive Tax Reports which inform the investor what proportion of his corpus has become tax-free and what proportion is liable to taxation. This comes extremely handy at the time of filing returns as investors prefer a ready reckoner of what is their tax liability
Notification of tax liability on redemption (Coming Soon): Often times, investors tend to redeem funds oblivious to the tax liability it creates. We have therefore started intimating our investors on whether their redemption amount is subject to taxation or not. This is extremely helpful when there are tax-free avenues for redemption which can be utilized first
NPS Account opening and investment