Dear Investor,

I have a story to tell you today, one that began a quarter of a century ago with a puzzle and has reached its decisive phase only now in a tool that is transforming the mutual fund investments of our members.

For the first few years after I founded this company in the early 1990s, we simply provided data and analyses to the investment industry and the media. I had no way of reaching out to investors personally and had yet to try. However, by 1998, the internet story in India had become big enough and interesting enough for this to change. After some months of struggle, we had our website, which opened our first direct channel to investors. Over the next few years, the user base of Value Research Online grew strongly. This enabled us to launch our magazine Mutual Fund Insight, Wealth Insight and a series of books. The user base of our products has grown steadily. Even during the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis, our readers and members stayed with us as we provided guidance and hope.

Yet, over the years, an interesting thing happened. Our investment mantra – my mantra – has always been centred around doing a few simple, sensible things well and consistently. Despite our users growing from hundreds to thousands and then lakhs and millions, there was never any need to make things more complex.

Even when truly unforeseen events like Covid-19 happened, there was no need to make things more complex! In fact, at some point in 2020, I wrote this, “Some of my readers say that ever since the Covid crisis started, I've been guilty of repeating the mantra 'stick to the basics' too often. They are completely wrong. I have been repeating this mantra for 25 years, and Covid has nothing to do with it! I hope to keep repeating it for decades to come. And, more importantly, beyond just me writing and you reading about it, I hope that all of us will continue to practise it in our investing.”

Investors' needs are simple

The interesting thing I realised over the years was that investors' needs are very simple, too. Having interacted with thousands of investors personally and having analysed the online usage patterns of an even larger number, it became quite clear that there were really only two queries that investors have:

• Where should I invest?
• Are my existing investments good?

The vast world of complexity that the financial industry has created can be reduced to these two points, and with our new service, Fund Advisor, that's exactly what we have done. For decades, I've had daily interactions with investors. We've shared much of our knowledge on Value Research Online and other services and publications. Building on this experience, we've developed a new service offering a complete solution.

This new offering integrates advice, transactions, tracking and education into one cohesive platform, eliminating the need to navigate multiple services or websites. We aim to streamline and improve your investment journey through this all-encompassing approach.

I'm here, personally

The cornerstone of this service is a thorough advisory experience designed to feel as if I'm personally guiding you through every aspect of managing your savings and mutual fund investments, just as if you and I were sitting face-to-face. Unlike our earlier services, this platform goes beyond just offering recommendations. It lets you conduct transactions directly, creating a seamless flow from decision-making to action. This integration of advice and execution saves time and minimises the risk of errors or missed opportunities.

As I'd said earlier, most of our members aren't starting from scratch, and our service is planned around that. Value Research Fund Advisor is designed with this reality in mind. Our platform offers a seamless process to import and manage your existing investments, ensuring a smooth transition to our comprehensive system. You can easily import your current mutual fund portfolio when you join us. Our intelligent system analyses your existing investments, providing insights into their performance, asset allocation and alignment with your financial goals. This feature saves you the hassle of manual data entry and gives you an immediate, holistic view of your financial situation.

A standout feature of our system is that it can take a family-centric view of investments. In India, the unit that invests is often the family, not the individual. Investments may be made and held in the name of grandparents, spouses and children, but they have unified goals. This is why we designed our platform to accommodate the investment needs of up to six individuals under a single subscription, allowing for comprehensive family financial management.

Our service goes beyond simply importing your existing investment data. We analyse this information to provide practical, actionable insights, helping you optimise your portfolio. Whether you're looking to bring together investments spread across different platforms or seeking a new perspective on a portfolio you've held for years, this feature is valuable. The import function is a starting point for creating a more structured and efficient investment approach. We use your current investments as a foundation rather than requiring you to start from scratch. We aim to enhance and build upon the financial groundwork you've already established, making your existing efforts more effective and aligned with your goals.

I've always maintained that successful investing should consume only some of an investor's time. This belief is the foundation of our platform, which operates on the principle of 'We'll handle the complexities for you.'

When you use Value Research Fund Advisor, you get:

• Goal-oriented portfolio building: We convert your life objectives into specific investment plans, ensuring your portfolio aligns with what's truly important to you.
• Fine-tuned fund selection: Our advanced algorithms, combined with expert knowledge, analyse thousands of funds to suit investors' needs best.
• Continuous portfolio oversight: As markets evolve, so should your investments. We constantly help you monitor your portfolio.

This approach relieves you of the need for constant research and decision-making. It allows you to concentrate on your strengths while we manage the complexities of fund management on your behalf.

Compared to anything else that claims to do these things, Fund Advisor is built literally on decades of actual user experience. It's a direct descendant of our system, launched a quarter of a century ago, and has evolved to serve investors' needs better. Lakhs of people have used that system over these decades, and now, I'm quite sure lakhs more will use this new system for much longer.

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