5-year, 10-year or 15-year? AMFI data shows where life cycle fund investors are putting their money

As per SEBI direction, the life cycle fund category is built around six maturity options: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years. But mutual fund houses have so far launched schemes catering to only three shorter maturity periods: 5, 10, and 15 years.

In September, the 15-year variant drew the most money, with a net inflow of ₹55.87 crore, followed closely by the 5-year variant at ₹55.68 crore and the 10-year variant at ₹32.20 crore.

Life cycle funds by maturity variant (₹ crore)

Much of the September jump in life cycle funds came from new launches. Four life cycle schemes entered the market during the month:

• Zerodha Life Cycle Fund 2031 and ICICI Prudential Life Cycle Fund 2031 in the 5-year bucket, and

• ICICI Prudential Life Cycle Fund 2036 in the 10-year bucket

• ICICI Prudential Life Cycle Fund 2041 in the 15-year bucket.

Combined, these four schemes mobilised ₹135 crore, AMFI's September data shows. Before that, the category had just two schemes, one each in the 10-year and 15-year variants, holding ₹19.76 crore and ₹18.31 crore respectively at the end of August.

Life cycle schemes launched in September 2026 (₹ crore)

The 5-year variant, which had no schemes at all in August, ended September with ₹54.06 crore in assets. The 15-year variant remains the largest by assets, at ₹71.78 crore, ahead of the 5-year (₹54.06 crore) and the 10-year (₹50.26 crore). The 20-, 25- and 30-year variants still have no schemes, no inflows and no assets in AMFI's report for either month.

Life cycle funds versus other categories

Category Net inflow in September (₹ crore) Small cap funds 9,038.57 Mid cap funds 7,834.84 Flexi cap funds 6,701.80 Large & mid cap funds 4,271.22 Multi cap funds 3,859.55 Multi asset allocation funds 3,666.98 Life cycle funds 143.75

Compared to the rest of the mutual fund market, the life cycle fund category is still tiny. Small-cap funds alone took in ₹9,038.57 crore in September and mid-cap funds ₹7,834.84 crore, while equity schemes as a group drew ₹38,306.55 crore. Life cycle funds accounted for well under 1% of that.

Even within the hybrid space, multi asset allocation funds collected ₹3,666.98 crore, which is more than 25 times the life cycle category's haul.

So, is this category attracting investors? It is too early to answer this. The life cycle funds are growing from a very small base. While an approx. 18-fold rise in net inflows in a month sounds dramatic, it is just ₹144 crore against a market that moves thousands of crores every month.

Current investments in this category is concentrated in the shorter tenures, and fund houses are yet to launch schemes for longer tenure life cycle funds.

However, September was better for this category than August on measures like schemes, inflows, assets and folios, indicating the category is at least finding its footing.