What are Mutual Funds?
If you’ve ever turned on a television, chances are fairly high that you’ve heard a narrator talk real fast at the end of some investment opportunity advert. ‘Mutual Funds are a market risk… ‘ indeed they are and where there is calculated risk there is a sizeable reward.
Mutual funds themselves are a collective fund that is managed professionally and the profit returns from which are shared by the investors in the pool. Mutual funds management courses are a great way to get oneself acquainted with the ins and outs of the field and the tools of the trade.
Mutual funds are a great way for helping the economy maintain moderate amounts of liquid assets exchanging hands- as Indians, we are rather evasive when it comes to taking the risk- in the form mutual funds at least the population can explore more financial growth opportunities while learning to calculate and take risks to some extent.
Need for Management in Mutual Funds and the affiliated finance industry
With any form of investment, careful thought and consideration are needed and it is crucial that this decision is made with the thorough understanding of the imposing risks and possibility of losses on the investment- Mutual Funds are a collective investment method and thus the scale and scope of the investment in stocks, bonds and other securities is much larger than just on a personal scale.
This calls for divided workload, so naturally, a team of professionals from diverse backgrounds comes together to handle the investments. The team that manages these investments, for its smooth functioning needs effective management and that is where a great career can be made. Mutual Funds management courses can be the first step towards that career. The mutual fund industry is slated to grow to Rs. 24 lakh crore by 2020.
Education, eligibility and skills
A registration number from the Associations of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), a certification course and some solid fundamentals in finance are all it takes to enter the Mutual Funds industry as a marketer or promoter. But in order to enter the management profiles, one must go through a management course such as MBA in Mutual Funds management. A 60%+ evaluation in 10+2 and preferably a finance or commerce related bachelor’s degree with the same results is needed to qualify for entry to a MBA program.
It is not necessary to have a foundation in finance to enter the field though, but it certainly helps. Both distance learning and traditional courses are available for this field and the average tuition costs between 1.5 to 2 Lakh rupees.
There are a lot of skills that are needed for this job and it isn’t as simple and straightforward as it might seem the first time it meets the eye. They take the pooled money and invest it right? How hard can it be?
You’ll be surprised just how many parameters are there to consider before making an investment, it requires efficient analysis skills, a strong understanding of finance, a very good intuition for market trends and above all, it requires very good judgment and ability to work under high stress work environments. When all of that is done, it also requires very good communication skills and risk management abilities.
Job Profiles, Salaries and future prospects
There are four main job profiles under Mutual Funds Management, operations manager, investment manager, risk manager and marketing manager.
The various job profiles are aimed respectively at handling- the running of normal everyday functions of the mutual investment firm, making the proper choice for the investment for the pooled assets based on the data analytics and statistics available, gauging the risk of the investment decision made by the investment management team under the firm and making decisions based on it whether investment decisions need to be reconsidered or risk can be minimized and finally, the marketing of the firm and it’s services.
With these diverse job profiles comes a salary that is decent and scales smoothly with experience- ensuring good career progression. 3.5-4 LPA at entry level and 7-9LPA as a mid-career salary. In a recent decision from Securities and Exchange Board of India, the salaries of higher executive Mutual Funds Managers had to be revealed, this information was only limited to investors before this move and it revealed the salaries of late career executive managers in Mutual Funds goes as high as 1.5 to 5 crore rupees per annum.
