Fund companies seem to be thinking much harder on being 'different'. Constrained by the type of offering, AMCs are trying newer and creative ways to differentiate their offering from the rest. Catchy names, innovative objectives and imaginative punch lines can be seen all over the place.
There have been quite a few funds with interesting names. In principle, the name of a particular fund should indicate its type/category, the objective, strategy or suitability. But in order to catch the eye of the investor, AMCs use some strange names and end up confusing the investors rather than informing them.
To name a few, Sundaram SMILE or DSPML TIGER are the kind of names that leave a lot of room for a person to keep guessing what it means. In some other cases, certain names have become outdated. For example, GIC D'MAT, a fund launched in early 1999 to invest in dematerialised shares doesn't make any sense today as all trading is only in demat format. The entire category of MIPs is a misnomer anyway. Though the name indicates that the fund offers regular monthly income to unitholders, that is not the case in reality.
It is not evident that the Standard Chartered All Season Bond Fund is actually a fund of fund. Even Prudential ICICI Spice and UTI Sunder, which are both exchange traded funds, do not indicate any such details except the names like ' Spice' and 'Sunder'.
Considering that a whole lot of small investors prefer funds as a trusted investment avenue, such tactics of puzzling names can actually mislead a lot of gullible investors. While we would prefer a fund name revealing details about the fund, do the industry and the regulator want it?
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