Predictors of Youth’s intention towards investment in Mutual funds

Abstract

Mutual funds serve as a vehicle for ordinary investors to place their assets in a professional funds management system. It makes it easier for the general public to access the Indian financial market. The Indian mutual fund business is expanding quickly, as evidenced by the year-over-year increase in assets managed by different AMCs. Assets Under Management (AUM) of Indian Mutual Fund Industry as on December 31, 2022 stood at ₹ 39,88,735 crore. The AUM of the Indian MF Industry has grown from ₹ 7.60 trillion as on December 31, 2012 to ₹39.89 trillion as on December 31, 2022 more than 5-fold increase in a span of 10 years (Association of Mutual Fund in India Report 2022). When opposed to investing in the stock market, mutual fund investing is less risky. Risk-averse investors are drawn to invest their resources in the financial markets by lower risk, modest rewards, and professional management. In order to better understand the demands and preferences of a growing generation, financial institutions and mutual fund firms need to do research on the factors that influence new investors' purchases of mutual funds. New investors, sometimes known as "freshers," frequently lack financial education and experience, and several factors might have an impact on how they make decisions. For the benefit of financial institutions and mutual fund businesses, this study intends to investigate and comprehend these issues. Financial institutions and mutual fund firms can better address the demands of this market by tailoring their marketing tactics and product offerings by looking into the elements that affect new investors' decisions to buy mutual funds. The purpose of this paper is to understand the various predictors of mutual fund investment intention of youth. This study uses quantitative and cross-sectional approach wherein questionnaire-based survey was done to collect responses from prospective individual investors and SPSS have been used to establish the hypothesized relationship between the constructs.