81 lakh mutual fund accounts opened in FY21, should you invest?

In the financial year 2021, over 81 lakh investors opened their mutual fund accounts. With the massive addition, the total number of mutual fund investors in the country now stands at 9.78 crores. 

In comparison, the mutual fund industry had added 72.89 lakh investor accounts in the financial year 2020, according to the data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India. Experts are now hoping that the healthy growth in the mutual fund industry would continue in the ongoing financial year. 

Kaustubh Belapurkar, Director Manager Research, Morningstar India told PTI that investors are increasingly acknowledging the importance of making investments in mutual funds for meeting financial goals both long term and short term. 

"The awareness about investing in mutual funds has been on the rise over the last many years with the investor awareness programmes, groundwork done by mutual funds, financial advisors and distributors in educating and shepherding investors through their investing journey," he added.

However, the mutual fund industry is yet to break its record of 1.6 crore account additions in a single year that came in FY18. In FY19, over 1.13 crore investor accounts were recorded.

Harshad Chetanwala, co-founder Mywealthgrowth.com, told PTI that mutual fund industry should do well this year too, as mutual funds continue to be one of the best options to invest across asset classes for every segment of investors.

"There is potential for mutual fund industry to reach out to wider investor base despite of the growth in last few years. There are 9.78 crore folios at present and if we consider an average of 3 or 4 folios per investor, there are just 2.5 crore to 3.25 crore unique investors in mutual funds," he said.

With inputs from PTI.