What to look for in CAS?

If you are an investor investing in stocks and mutual funds, you would have received many Common Account Statements (CAS) till date. The CAS sent by National Securities and Depositories Ltd (NSDL) and Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) is different from the CAS you receive from mutual fund houses relating to you MF holdings with the respective fund house. But have you gone through the CAS sent by NSDL/CDSL and tried to find out the status of your investments? If you have not till date, then you should. Here is what you should look for in the CAS.

The CAS provides you with a summary of your stock and mutual fund holdings in demat form, as well as previous month's transactions and the details of your accounts. CAS gives details about your asset-wise holdings such as equities, preference shares, mutual funds and insurance policies held in demat form, etc. However, if the MF holdings are held in physical form and if the PAN for both demat account and MF holding is the same, then CAS will include Statement of Account (SOA) that gives details of physical MF holdings.

In the CAS, check out the number of shares held by you in various companies and their values on the last day of the previous month. Go through the number of MF units MF held by you in various MF schemes and their NAVs in the previous month. This will give you an overall view of your investments.

If you have transacted in shares, mutual funds or insurance policy in the previous month, the transactions will be listed on the transactions page of the statement. Hence, the CAS gives you a fair idea of the investments and disinvestments made in the previous month and keeps you updated on the status of your investments. So, don’t ignore CAS.