How to resolve mutual fund complaints

Arnav PandyaThere are often some complaints that investors have with respect to their mutual fund investments. It is necessary that these complaints are solved quickly so that the investor does not suffer in terms of the disruption of their investment plans. This requires that they take immediate action and write to the fund to solve these complaints. The good part is that mutual funds have an increasing option of choices and routes that can be used for solving them right from online mechanisms to app-based solutions. Here is a detailed look at some types of complaints and why it is necessary to ensure that they are solved quickly. 

Minor changes 

There are some problems or complaints of investors that are minor in nature. These do not affect the investment as a whole but it has importance in the sense that the right picture is not being shown due to the discrepancy. Things like a wrong Permanent Account Number being present or the address of the investor having some small mistake are part of this category. This is usually solved by writing to the mutual fund house with the necessary proof showing the correct details. Often this kind of discrepancy occurs due to some small manual errors either on the part of the investor or sometimes from the side of the fund house when the investment is made.  Such issues might seem to be minor in nature but it is important that these be tackled and solved immediately. Often it is seen that investors do not pay much attention to such issues but then find themselves stuck at a later date when their entire investment is held up due to these wrong details. 

Impacting investments 

Some of the complaints have a direct impact on the manner in which the investor will be able to handle their money with respect to the mutual fund. Here things like the wrong bank account details being present in the investment account to the wrong name and other details like wrong address can completely stop the investment in its tracks. This can happen as the investor can realise that they are not able to transact in their account. Even worse could be a situation where someone else might take benefit of the position and this could lead the investor to run about trying to rectify the situation. Take for example a wrong bank account mentioned in the investment statement. If this is allowed to continue then the dividends would not come to the bank account and the investor would not be able to take the benefit of the amount that should naturally come to them.  There has to be a priority in solving these problems so that the investment continues smoothly without any disruption.

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Arnav Pandya

Financial Advisor & Writer

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Avoiding mistakes 

A little bit of care right from the time that the investment is made would be useful in ensuring that there is some relief as far as the rise of the problems are concerned. In many cases the application form is filled out in such a manner that the details are not clear. Similarly some small mistake while transacting can lead to other issues cropping up. Care has to be taken to ensure that these do not creep in and the best way to do this is to double check the details before they are actually submitted. The other thing that needs to be done is that once the investment is complete then too the actual details that have been recorded should be read and compared with the actual position to see that there is no discrepancy that has crept in. This would be the best way to ensure that there is no problem that remains outstanding.