New Delhi, March 3 -- India's mutual fund industry has spent the better part of the last 25 years persuading people to start investing. Monthly systematic investment plan (SIP) contributions now exceed Rs.26,000 crore. Over 10 crore folios are active. By most measures, India is making meaningful progress on wealth creation.

Yet a gap remained. There was no product designed to help investors stop investing and start spending - for a child's college admission, for a house down payment, or for the year they finally retire.

Until now, the answer was to do it yourself. As the goal approached, investors had to manually shift money from riskier equity to debt, decide how much to reallocate each year, and pay taxes on every rebalance along the ...