Overview
- Solution-oriented schemes, including children’s and retirement funds, have stopped fresh subscriptions and must be merged with similar offerings subject to SEBI approval.
- A new Life Cycle Funds category debuts as open-ended, target-date schemes with tenures of 5–30 years, glide-path asset allocation across equity, debt and permitted commodities, a limit of six active funds per AMC, and exit loads of 3%/2%/1% in the first three years.
- Portfolio overlap for sectoral/thematic and certain pairs such as value and contra funds is capped at 50%, with AMCs required to cut any excess by 35% in year one, 35% in year two and 30% in year three or face mandatory mergers.
- Uniform naming rules require every scheme’s title to match its category and prohibit return-focused terms, with six months for alignment and a clarification that name-only changes will not be treated as fundamental attribute changes.
- Equity categories carry minimum allocation thresholds and debt schemes are reset by Macaulay duration bands, sectoral debt funds are permitted subject to adequate paper, monthly overlap disclosure on AMC websites is mandatory, and Fund-of-Funds are standardized with category limits and ceilings.