What are the Scheme Related Documents? What information do these documents provide?

All mutual fund ads contain a message: “Read all scheme related documents carefully.” What are these documents?

There are 3 important documents: Key Information Memorandum (KIM), Scheme Information Document (SID) and Statement of Additional Information (SAI).

These are prepared by the Asset Management Company (AMC) about a particular scheme, and submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for approval.

The SID has information like:

1. All Fundamental Attributes like Investment Objective and Policies, Asset Allocation Pattern, Fees and Liquidity Provisions.
2. Fund Management Team details
3. All Risk Factors in the scheme as well as risk mitigation mechanisms.
4. Scheme details like load, plans and options, past performance, benchmark.
5. General Unitholder information.
6. Other details like list of AMC branches, Investor Service Centres, Official Points of Acceptance.

The SAI has information like:

1. The constitution of the Mutual Funds – Sponsors, Asset Management Company and Trustees.
2. All information on key personnel of the AMC and associates such as Registrars, Custodians, Bankers, Auditors and Legal Counsel.
3. All Financial and Legal issues.

The concise version of  SID  is the KIM, that is attached with the application form. As the name suggests, it contains all the Key Information that an investor must know before investing in the scheme. The KIM must be made available with every application form.