Folio Consolidation In Mutual Fund

When ever you invest in a Mutual Fund , you will be provided with a unique number called Folio Number . This is like a account number and would have your details like Name, Contact address, Bank Details , PAN details all stored linked to this account number .

Please note each Mutual Fund company (AMC) like HDFC , Fidelity follow their own way of having this Folio Number , so it is not same across companies , so each of these companies will give you a Folio Number when you invest in their schemes.

Initially when i started investing in MFs , i did not realise the importance of this number , so when i invested in the same Mutual Fund , but in their different schemes i did not use the same Folio Number , hence ended with many different Folio Number for the same MF company


Why is having too many Folios not a Good Idea

•  You would end up with many different Account Statements , making it hard to get a overall picture of your MF investments. 
• In case you want to change your contact address or any other details  you would have to make sure that you do that for all the Folios involved
•  In case you have mentioned different Bank Account details in each of these Folios , then you would have a hard time to track, if you have received the dividends and redemption proceeds.
•  As per article 3 Accounts , if you decide to close some of your unused Bank Accounts , you need to be careful , as you might have mentioned this account in one your many folios.
•  KYC compliance that is currently being made mandatory would needs to be done for all Folios

The different Folios from a same AMC can be consolidated, you would just need to give a letter clearly mentioning your different Folios and the Target Folio into which you would like to consolidate all your Folios.

Conditions under which Folios cannot be consolidated

1) You name appears differently ( could be without initials or expanded or not expanded initials )

2) Bank Details are different

3) There are ELSS investments which are locked for 3 years ( AMC are very cautious with such Folio ) , especially if this Folio is not the Target Folio of your merge.

So my advice would be, if you are just starting off on you MF investing journey try and keep a single Folio . and In case you have already ended up with multiple folio numbers , try and consolidate them .

Life would be a lot simpler with a single consolidated Folio

Image : FreeDigitalPhotos.net,Photographer: Filomena Scalise