Want a Robust Mutual Fund Portfolio? These Equity Balanced Funds are Right for You!

Last Updated : Sept. 2, 2016, 12:17 p.m.

We all contemplate long and hard to find a safe heaven to park our hard-earned money, isn't it folks? At the same time, you must be focusing on earning substantial returns. In a bid to achieve both, you must be looking around various instruments, which can be fixed deposits, life insurance, mutual funds or others. Most of the instruments can either give a good return or the safety of the invested capital. But mutual fund is one such financial tool that can provide you both. Want to know why? It's because of the diversification that allows investors to profit from the capital appreciation over the long-term with equity investments while generating regular income through investments in debt and money market instruments. There can be many mutual funds catering to your needs. Mutual funds can be classified into equity, debt, balanced, liquid and other funds. However, balanced funds are the ones that serve the investors on most investment aspects. Balanced funds, also known as hybrid funds, allocate the assets in both equity and debt instruments in a proportion based upon the prevailing market conditions. Balanced funds can be equity or debt oriented, means the investment can be greater in the instruments where the orientation is. We, in this article, will talk about the top-performing equity balanced funds.

Tata Balanced Fund
The fund looks to optimize the return and minimize the effects of volatility by choosing a slew of equity and debt securities for investment. Based on the prevailing market conditions and the future estimates, the fund managers of the AMC allocate the investments between equity and debt securities. With Tata Balanced Fund, you are most likely to get appreciation on your capital as well as regular income to feed upon. Want to check out the performance of the fund in recent years? Stay glued to the statistics below.
Returns
1-year return- 6.48%
3-year return-25.44%
5-year return-17.79%

SBI Magnum Balanced Fund
Although, the fund does not expose your investment to equity investments entirely, but a substantial chunk of it is invested into equity to churn out more returns than one can expect to get from debt funds. The fund invests in equities across the entire market capitalization spectrum/money market instruments. However, you should be a long-term investor to get the most out of your investment in this fund. The returns of the fund are shown below.
Returns
1-year return-7.52%
3-year return-23.78%
5-year return-17.38%

ICICI Prudential Balanced Fund
This fund invests your money in such a way that your goal of capital appreciation and safety are fulfilled in the best possible manner. Around 65% of the investments are made in equity and the remaining in debt to provide you more returns and enhance safety of your invested capital. The performance of the fund is also encouraging with consistent returns to the investors over the years. Now get into the performance statistics of the fund in recent years to take a call on the fund.
Returns
1-year return-8.84%
3-year return-23.70%
5-year return-17.03%

L&T India Prudence Fund
The fund is ideally suited for investors wanting long-term appreciation on the capital as it invests mainly in equity and equity products. However, a bit of investment is also made in the debt instruments to enhance the safety of your money. Get ready to see the returns provided by this fund below.
Returns
1-year return-6.14%
3-year return-24.46%
5-year return-16.94%

HDFC Balanced Fund
As an open-ended scheme, the fund seeks to appreciate capital over the long-term as well as generate regular income by investing in a portfolio of equity, debt and money market instruments. The fund has provided good returns to the investors and a proof of the same is showcased below for you to see.
Returns
1-year return-8.42%
3-year return-26.73%
5-year return-16.20%

Impact of Taxation

As these funds invest a significant corpus in equity investments, so the taxation impact is very much investor-freindly. Means, if you sell off your investments after a year, you will walk away with no tax liability. However, on selling the investments before a year will account for tax at the rate of 15% as well as a securities transaction tax of 0.001%.

So, after looking at the asset allocation and the taxation impact, it can be said that the above mentioned equity balanced funds are a perfect setting to bolster your mutual fund portfolio.