Tele-callers of insurance products should be trained according to the syllabus prescribed by IRDA and they should inform clients that the call is being recorded and that the client is entitled to a voice copy, according to the new guidelines issued by the insurance watchdog. The new guidelines on telemarketing and distance mode marketing shall come into force from October 1. The hours during which calls are made shall be in accordance with orders issued by Trai/DoT from time to time.
From February, equity mutual funds have to change their benchmarks to account for dividend payments. Until now, funds used price-based benchmarks alone. TRI or total return indices assume that dividend payouts are reinvested back into the index. What this does is lift the overall index returns, because dividends get compounded. For example, the Sensex TRI index will consider dividend payouts of its constituent companies while the Nifty50 TRI index will consider dividends of its constituents. Using TRI indices as benchmarks comes on the argument that an equity funds earn dividends on the stocks in its portfolio, which they use to buy more stocks. Therefore, using an index that also considers dividend reinvestment would be a more appropriate benchmark. Shrinking outperformance With a stiffer benchmark, it is obvious that the margin by which an equity fund outperforms the benchmark would shrink. Rolling one-year returns from 2013 onwards, the average margin by which largecap funds out...
