Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund Celebrates 15 Years Of Wealth Creation

By Cressida Matthew

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund (BSLMF) one of the leading Mutual Fund houses in India, is celebrating completion of 15 years. Since its inception, the fund house has registered impressive growth in terms of business (asset under management) and has offered funds to its investors that have created wealth for them consistently.

Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company (BSLAMC) is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group, a well known and trusted name globally amongst Indian conglomerates and Sun Life Financial Inc, leading international financial services organization from Canada. It was established in 1994.

BSLAMC is amongst the top 5 asset management companies in India with an average asset under management of Rs 68,066 crores as on December 31, 2009. Known for its consistent performance, BSLAMC has received recognition from various institutes of international repute like the CRISIL, Asian investor Magazine, The Asset Magazine ICRA and Lipper. An impressive mix of reach through 106 branches, full range of product offerings across equity, debt, balanced & structured asset classes and strong investment performance has helped the Company enjoy trust of over 2.3 Million investors.It is the only fund house in India to have won the coveted "Mutual Fund House of the Year" from CNBC TV 18 Crisil twice in a row.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group is a broad based and integrated player in the financial services space with a strong presence across verticals viz., life insurance, asset management, retail broking, distribution and wealth management, NBFC, insurance broking & advisory services and private equity. ABFSG is rapidly growing in line with its vision to be a leader and role model in the Indian financial services sector.

The seven companies representing Aditya Birla Financial Services Group are Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company, Aditya Birla Money (erstwhile Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investments), Birla Sun Life Distribution Company, Birla Global Finance Company, Birla Insurance Advisory & Broking Services and Aditya Birla Capital Advisors.

The consolidated revenues from these businesses crossed USD 1 billion mark in 2008-09. ABFSG has its wings spread across more than 500 cities in India through over 1500 branches and over 2 lacs channel partners. Today ABFSG collectively enjoys trust of over 4 million customers, manages assets over USD 16 billion and prides itself for having a talent pool of over 15,000 committed employees.

ABFSG is a part of Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited (ABNL), a USD 3 billion conglomerate having leadership position across its manufacturing as well as services sector businesses. ABNL is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a USD 29 billion Indian business house operating in 25 countries across the globe.

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services. As of March 31, 2009, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of $375 billion globally. Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide.

Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company suits the wealth and income creation needs of investors across asset classes including Portfolio Management Services, Offshore Fund and Real Estate Fundoffers by offering a wide range of products. The average AUM of the fund house as of 31st December was Rs 68,066 crores making it the fifth largest fund house in India, while the number of investor folios today stands at over 23 Lakh.

In a celebratory event for marking the completion of the 15 years, some of the first set of investors who are associated with BSLMF even today, were felicitated by Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman - Aditya Birla Group. These investors have realized multifold gains from their investments, underlining the need of having a long term horizon in case of equity investments.

In order to provide investment solutions to its investors on an ongoing basis, the fund house has focused on investor needs and launched innovative products. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96 has secured the 1st rank based on thirteen-year annualized return of 35.33% in Indian Rupee as of 30th September 2009. BSLMF was the first to introduce Birla Cash Plus as a Quasi Money market fund. When stock markets were volatile and investor sentiment weak in the year 2002, the fund house identified the opportunity to invest in high dividend yield companies through Birla Dividend Yield Plus. Further, Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96" (BSLTR'96"), has been adjudged "the World's Best-Performing Equity Fund", according to Lipper global data.

Mr. A. Balasubramanian, CEO-BSLMF said, "We have entered into the 15th year of our foundation amidst challenging environment as we move closer to the leadership position in the industry, following strong business growth. We are celebrating the occasion with solemn commitment of continuing to focus on the needs of our investors and serve them better." "Over a decade and half of experience over various market cycles has helped us formulate time tested processes to help us deliver consistent investment performance for our investors", said Mr. Balasubramanian thus concluding the event. - 31391

About the Author:

Want to find out more about Birla Sunlife MF's 15 years of Wealth Creation, then visit Birla Sunlife Mutual Fund site & know more.

Natural Gas ETF, a simple way to trade the energy sector

By Warren Gates

Natural gas prices have fluctuated from a low of $2.50 to over $6 this year. They are now trading around $5. When there are large ranges like that, a sharp trader may be able to profit from this.

Whether you are a trader or investor, you will be able to find the right investment for you in natural gas. This article will show you different ways to trade natural gas. You will find Natural Gas ETFs that invest in stocs of producers,drillers and even futures.

Why invest in the natural gas sector? Natural gas is gaining in in usage in the United States. The reason for this is that natural gas burns cleaner than coal. Since coal produces most of our electricity, there is pressure to convert coal generating plants to run on natural gas. Plus since gas burns cleaner, it is more environmentally friendly.

Another reason to trade natural gas is because it is plentiful in the United States. Many people are pushing for more drilling here in the U.S. to tap into our vast reserves. Americans wants to get away from our dependence on foreign oil and want to use energy resource right here at home.

The natural gas market has caught the eye of the largest oil company in the world. XTO Energy, perhaps the biggest company in natural gas was purchased by ExxonMobil. If you recall last fall, oil investor T. Boone Pickens was on tv talking about how natural gas is the future for the United States. If people and companies like this are investing in natural gas, perhaps you should be too.

What are Natural Gas ETFs?

An ETF is better known as an Exchange Traded Fund. ETF are similar to mutual funds. An exchange traded fund is typically made up of several stocks. One such fund is the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas Index Fund. This fund, ticker symbol FCG is generally made up of companies thats earn a large part of their revenue from natural gas productions and exploration.

Currently the United States Natural Gas Fund is the largest natural gas etf. This fund trades the natural gas futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This fund purchases the front month futures contract. it hold them until 2 weeks before the contract expires.

This is just an introduction to trading Natural Gas ETFs. Continue your research on this profitable market. - 31391

About the Author:

You can find more about natural gas etf and learn how to trade natural gas mutual funds

Comparing Mutual Funds

By Bob Jones

For anyone who is interested in investing in the stock market, there are various mutual funds that can be worth looking into. When you are doing this sort of research, it is best to short-list a couple of different mutual funds. To compare mutual funds you will have to keep various benchmarks in sight. The first one is the performance of the various companies that you have short-listed.

This means checking to see how the company has weathered the ups and downs of the stock market over a previous period of years. While this is not an reliable indication of future success, it will inform you, whether the mutual fund company is capable of performing reasonably, even if there is no clear indication of the prices of stocks changing. You can find this information in several financial guides.

You will gain an idea of how the stock market affects different forms of mutual funds from these different data sources and, once you have pondered these changes and the way your prospective portfolio is affected by them, you will know which funds are best avoided and which ones are all right to study further. However, it takes more than just looking through financial reviews to compare mutual funds effectively.

You will also need to see what kinds of costs are listed by the different mutual funds on your list. These expenses will include administrative costs, advertising costs, buying and selling of stocks and bonds charges and also the sorts of load costs. As most of these expenses need to be borne by the customer, it is advisable for you to research this information thoroughly.

You will find this information in newspapers and on Internet sites. However, make sure that you understand all of the information that is given, as this makes investing in a mutual fund less risky. In addition to these ideas on how to compare mutual funds, you will also discover lots of in-depth articles.

These brochures will explain the different terms used in some mutual fund articles. You will also be provided with information about the types of mutual funds that are currently available on the stock exchange.

By looking at all of this information, you can make a well-informed decision about which mutual funds are worthwhile investing in. Be sure that you look at all of these facts when you are ready to start investing. The details gained from comparing the mutual funds will give you the best information for investing wisely in the risky world of the stock exchange. - 31391

About the Author:

If you are interested in Investing in Mutual Funds or investing in general, please go along to our website called Investing in Mutual Funds

Help For Retirement Calculation

By Smet Henry

All insured people in France must face with regulation of pension evolving making their application more and more complex. EOR is a consulting agency in retirement to help people for that. Through analysis of reconstitution of career and scoring the points fund accounts by fund and scheme by scheme, customers are sure to lose nothing of the contributions made during their careers.

Complex forms related to career recovery, validation of certain rights or recovery periods and contributions can be a real obstacle course. There are also rules for transforming the subtle calculations simulating pensions and their projection into a delicate exercise, whereas a pension is part of the future heritage, which should be exploited at best.

In fact, Eor services could help you: they interview each fund affiliate of the client and monitor the counts obtained. they proceed with corrections and disputes with the necessary funds to enforce your rights (period not taken into account, miscellaneous). Your pension consultant build for you a summary record of 20 to 30 pages of acquired rights and to acquire, to make estimates of the amount of future pensions to defined deadlines (which vary depending on the career of each insured person and his scheme affiliation). Each client is sure that all rights are preserved and that rents will be paid corresponding to the desired maturity.

It is an innovative product because people think that the payment of retirement is a simple administrative formality for which no value can be made. Our book shows that contrary to proper arrangements for departure adds value contributions and the choice of an appropriate status at the time of departure optimizes the last years of employment (assumption of accumulated employment pension for example). Finally know the amount of future pensions paid by pension schemes is a useful tool heritage.

Need more information about retirement, consult www.eor.fr - 31391

About the Author:

Need information about retirement, consult www.eor.fr for bilan retraite, and have reportscalculateur retraite

Trading Options " Road To Wealth Or Short Cut To Bankruptcy?

By Johnny M Junior

Trading options has several advantages over trading in ordinary shares (stocks). This method of trading can also be high risk if you do not know what you are doing. We will briefly look at the different scenarios.

Steps to Success with Option Trades

The first advantage is that you can realize much bigger profits than if you invested the same amount of money in ordinary shares. The reason is what traders call leverage. If the price of a particular share is for example $100 and you have only $100 to invest, you can only buy a single share. The price of a so-called 'call option' could be as little as $.20. If this is so, then it would cost you $20 to control 100 shares of stock.

Let's now say a call option on that stock sells for $.20. If this is true, then you can control 100 shares of that stock for only $20. Just imagine the leverage you have. This is what attracts many investors to option trading.

Nowadays, experienced option traders like to use option spreads. This is what seems to be the best and safest way to make money on the market. To do this, we buy and sell options, giving us a hedged position with very limited risk.

Many people also use trading options to hedge investments they already have. If you have an investment of $1000 in a share that recently went up with more than 25%, you want to hold on to your profits, but you don't want to sell the shares either because the price might rise even further. In comes put options. If you bought put options on that particular share their value will increase if the share price drops (with the same amount as the drop in the share price). Your investment will therefore be intact. This is a very common hedging technique, and it's something to be studied more in detail. Whatever you do, make sure you do your homework before trading options. - 31391

About the Author:

Learn more about option trading and how it works. With the right option trading system in place you will make lots of money. Set up your future today with a great way to earn cash!

403b Retirement Plans - Facts You Should Know

By John Lawole

403b retirement plans create the savings alternative to 401k plans but for work categories such as self-employed ministers, public schools employees and the employees of tax-exempt organizations. Despite the existence of limitations in the system, 403b retirement plans also have great advantages not only for employees and employers.

First of all, some companies use the existence of 403b retirement plans as a means to hire valuable professionals. Then, there are tax deductions not only for the employee who contributes money but also for the the hiring company. Tax deferment is thus possible for decades, while your account savings increase. Taxes will be paid only when you start withdrawing money.

Another good part about 403b retirement plans is that you can get loans against this money when you are in a dire need of cash. However, you should be aware of the way such loans and their repayment will affect your taxes. And this is where limitations of such retirement plans begin. In addition, you can only contribute a maximum amount of money as part of the 403b retirement plans per fiscal year. Plus, you can enjoy a total maximum contribution only if the company you work for has incredible profit.

Once you are 59.5 years old, you can start withdrawing money from the 403b retirement plans. There are penalties charged before this age. Otherwise, all you pay is the tax for income according to the withdrawn sum. Younger users get a 10% penalty on top of this tax per income. Different rules are set by the IRS for employees that own more than 5% of the company that they work for. This is a measure against very wealthy people who could be accumulating lots of tax-free money in their accounts.

All the savings available in the 403b retirement plans will be calculated so that you can get a good and complete distribution according to your life expectancy. The IRS also charges penalties for excess accumulation if you do not start to take the required minimum distribution, then you will be charged with a very high tax. Read more on what tax savings you can make with the contribution to the 403b retirement plans and then see what dividends, capital gains and interests you can earn in the 403b account. - 31391

About the Author:

For further information on financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning, or Planning For Retirement tips, go over to my blog for more great Retirement Planning Advice, to discover how to start saving for your retirement today.

How To Secure Your Financial Future Through Investing

By Eno Williams

The very last few years have seen several changes in the financial world where a lot of the 'so called' economically secure areas have proved to be risky nevertheless we all must guarantee our financial future is safe. It is also unfeasible for folks to be able to work for the rest of their lives either as a result investing is the way to counter future financial problems.

There is nothing improper by having short term money in a low interest savings account however you cannot expect these to increase at a value that will provide for the future. This is the way several of us plan for the shorter term to obtain things that need preparing for in the immediate to near future and this dictates where the funds will be invested for the best financial return.

Huge amounts of money can be generated pretty fast if you are keen to invest in a higher risk area. If you are saving for the far off future, such as retirement, you may want to make safer investments that mature over a longer frame of time.

Long term financial freedom and guarantee requires time and keep in mind that you will not always be in a position to work hence the earlier you start this the better. You also would not rely on the Social Security system to do what you expect it to do and as we have seen with Enron, you cannot inevitably depend on your company's retirement benefit also therefore investing is the recipe to guarantee your own financial future, however you should make smart investments!

Investing for your future nevertheless has risks which can be reduced precisely like in a match where the victor is not all the time a guaranteed thing. If you know the system and have set up a plan of action for your investment you would give yourself a greater chance of success. If you know precisely how much funds you will need as you stop working, it is just a matter of preparing where to invest to meet that need.

Every category of fund has various areas that could be used to suit the requirements of the investor and as such makes each fund extremely exclusive. The most well-known of these areas is the stock market with basically hundreds of thousands of companies available to speculate savings in. Shrewd people understand that this is a complex game where the system have to to be learned before play commences therefore much of study is essential however that will make the difference of losing terribly or winning spectacularly. This is where a strategy comes into play but bear in mind your existing circumstances should be stabilized before you thinking of investing for your future. - 31391

About the Author:

For more information about investing opportunities, go over to my blog to learn more about mutual funds investing, what are mutual funds, and why investing in mutual funds is a great choice to have in your investment portfolio