These balanced schemes became riskier in 2017

Balanced mutual fund schemes are considered less risky due to their mixed allocation to equity and debt. However, by late 2017, many mutual fund analysts stated pointing out that many mutual funds were stocking up more stocks, especially midcap stocks. Some schemes were also betting on long-tenure bonds on hopes of a rate cut.

ET.com Mutual Funds tried to find out which are the equity-oriented hybrid schemes that have reasonably higher equity exposure in their portfolio. Investors can get the equity allocation of their schemes in the Scheme Information Document under the head 'Investment Pattern'. Balanced schemes need to allocate a minimum 65 per cent to equity to qualify as equity mutual funds for favourable taxation.

We have filtered balanced schemes which held minimum 70 per cent of their AUM in equities, thus increasing their risk profile. Going by the latest data available, there are 16 schemes out of the total 44, which match our criteria. UTI CCP Advantage Fund tops the list with 92 per cent equity allocation.


Our list includes big schemes such as HDFC Prudence Fund, SBI Magnum Balanced Fund and Aditya Birla SL Balanced ’95 Fund too.

Debt portion also influence scheme’s risk profile largely. We looked at the schemes and found that while on an average, the average maturity of equity-oriented balanced schemes was between four to five years, Tata Balanced fund had an average maturity of 8.8 years and Aditya Birla SL Balanced ’95 Fund had 7.1 years, which fell slightly on a higher side.

These numbers make it very clear that not all balanced schemes are suitable for investors with conservative or moderate risk appetite. Do a thorough research before investing so you do not end up putting your hard earned money in risky schemes.