The dividend option of mutual funds distributes the investment profits as dividends to investors. Dividends are paid regularly on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis. Moreover, the frequency of dividend payout depends on the surplus generated by the fund with no guarantee of payouts. • According to SEBI rules, dividends are paid out from the accumulated profits of the mutual fund schemes. • The dividend payout rates and the timing of dividend payments are not guaranteed. • You will see the mutual fund scheme's NAV (Net Asset Value) drop after you receive dividends. It is because dividends paid to investors are adjusted from the NAV of mutual fund schemes.

SEBI changed the Mutual Funds Dividend Option to Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal or IDCW in April 2021. It refers to the mutual fund scheme's income distribution, including dividends from stocks and capital gains earned by selling stocks from its portfolio. So why did SEBI rename the dividend option as IDCW? Well, investors receive profits called dividends from the mutual fund scheme. However, at the same time, the Net Asset Value gets reduced after you receive the dividends. As there is no additional payout, SEBI has renamed the gains, distribution of income.

Dividend income is taxable in the hands of unit holders since 1st April 2020. Any dividend received after this date is added to investors' taxable income and taxed as per the income tax bracket. In the case of IDCW, dividend income is taxed as per your income tax slab.

The NAV of a mutual fund scheme reflects the total value of its underlying securities. If the scheme sells securities to book profits and distribute them as dividends to unitholders, then the NAV is impacted proportionally. Therefore, there is a fall in NAV to reflect dividend payout after a dividend announcement. Suppose the NAV of a mutual fund scheme is Rs 100 per unit, and the dividend declared is Rs 5 per unit. It results in a drop of Rs 5 in the NAV per unit on the dividend date.

You must finish your KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements as part of compliance. It is mandatory to prevent the misuse of financial entities services for illegal activities such as money laundering. Your NFO and investment in mutual funds, including dividend funds, get rejected if you have not completed your KYC.

You must finish your KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements which is verification of your identity and address by an institution before investing in dividend funds. It prevents the misuse of services of banks, AMCs and other financial institutions for illegal activities such as money laundering.

There's no change in the redemption process for dividend funds.

You get the dividend payout to your bank account used for investments.

The dividend payout depends on the mutual fund house. There may be a delay of a few days if the fund house misses the dividend payout cycle. However, dividends will be paid out in the subsequent cycle.

It is the period for which your money will remain locked in the mutual fund. Most mutuals do not have any lock-in period. ELSS, Tax-Savers, come with a lock-in of 3 years which is the lowest compared to other 80C investment options. Lock-in period is calculated from the date of investment. Meaning SIPs will have different lock-in dates

KYC is necessary for all fund houses. If you are investing through BLACK, you need to do your KYC just once. The same KYC will be used for all further investments.

A Mandate is a one-time registration through which you instruct your bank account to deduct a specified amount of money from your account daily towards investing into a SIP portfolio. Once you register for Mandate, you don’t have to follow the payment process every time you invest in the SIP.