How often should I review my investment portfolio?
Check your portfolio briefly every quarter, review it properly once a year, and review it again straight away after any big change in your life or your money. That rhythm catches real problems without tempting you to trade on noise.
A quarterly check takes half an hour. It confirms your SIPs ran, your mix of equity and debt is still near its target, and nothing is due that you have not planned for.
The yearly review goes deeper. It revisits your goals, your risk profile, your insurance, the funds you hold and your tax.
Some events should trigger a review whatever the date: a new job or a pay rise, marriage, a child, a home purchase, an inheritance, a job loss, or a goal coming within three years.
Reviewing more often than this rarely helps. Markets move every day, and a portfolio built for goals five or fifteen years away should not change because of one bad month.
When to rebalance, and when to leave it alone
- Rebalance when the mix has drifted well away from target, for example when equity has grown from 60% of your portfolio to 70%.
- Rebalance when a goal gets close, by moving the money for it from equity to safer options over its last two or three years.
- Leave it alone when the drift is small. Every switch can mean capital gains tax and exit loads, and a review that changes nothing is a good result.
- Use new money first. Pointing fresh SIPs or a bonus at the underweight side often fixes drift without selling anything.
Get a quarterly portfolio review from an investment expert
A SEBI registered investment adviser can review your portfolio on a schedule you agree, for a fee you pay directly. Ask for the review frequency to be written into the advisory agreement.
Registered advisers must disclose the timelines for the services they provide and keep to them. That is part of the Investor Charter, so a review schedule in writing is a fair thing to ask for.
Before you hire anyone, check how they are paid. An adviser has a duty to act in your interest; a distributor or bank relationship manager is paid by the products you buy. Our guide to fiduciary duty covers the questions to ask.
You can do the first pass yourself. Our free portfolio check reads your mutual fund statement and shows how much your funds overlap, what you pay in commissions and where the portfolio is lopsided, so the review starts from facts.
Who can review your portfolio
| Investment app's automated report | Distributor or bank review | Portfolio manager (PMS) statements | SEBI registered investment adviser | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Charts of returns, allocation and overlap | A meeting, often with suggested switches | Regular statements on the portfolio they run for you | A review of your whole plan, with written recommendations |
| Who pays | Usually free, or part of a subscription | No fee to you; paid through commissions on products | You, a management fee and often a share of gains | You, a fee agreed in writing |
| Looks at your goals and risk profile | Rarely | Sometimes | Only for the money they manage | Yes, it has to |
| Covers money held elsewhere | What you link to the app | Mostly what you bought through them | No | Yes, everything you share |
| Watch for | Numbers with no judgement on what to do | Switches into products that pay more | Performance fees that reward risk | A schedule that is not in the agreement |
What to expect from investment advisory with quarterly performance reviews
A good quarterly performance review measures your portfolio against your goals, not just against the market, and ends with a short written note of what to change. Returns are one input, not the verdict.
What each review should cover
- Your mix of equity, debt and other assets against the target in your plan.
- Progress on each goal: what has been built, what is still needed, and whether the monthly amount is enough.
- Cash flows: whether SIPs ran and planned top-ups happened.
- Anything due in the next twelve months, such as school fees or a down payment, and whether that money is already somewhere safe.
- Fund performance over the right period. Compare each fund with its benchmark and category over three and five years. One quarter says very little.
- Costs: expense ratios, and any regular plans that could move to direct plans. See what that costs with our regular vs direct calculator.
- Tax: gains to book or losses to set off before 31 March. Our tax harvesting calculator shows what is worth doing.
- Changes in your life that should change the plan.
Questions to ask before you sign up
- How often will you review my portfolio, and is that in the agreement?
- What will I receive after each review, and in what form?
- Will you look at everything I own, including EPF, insurance and property, or only some of it?
- Who reviews it: a named advisor, or an automated report?
- How are you paid, and does anyone other than me pay you when I act on your advice?
Where we fit, and where we do not
Invsify is a SEBI registered investment adviser (INA000020572). Invsify Private costs ₹8,999 a year, fixed, with no commissions. Your plan is reviewed by an advisor, you can talk to one before any big decision, and the app keeps watch on your portfolio between conversations.
We are not the right choice for everyone. If your portfolio is a couple of index funds and one SIP, a yearly check with our free portfolio check may be all you need. If you want someone to run a large portfolio for you day to day, that is a portfolio manager's job. If you want buy and sell calls on individual stocks, a SEBI registered research analyst is built for that.
If you would rather fix your portfolio yourself, our free five-lesson course walks through it one task at a time.