Invesco CEO: My aunt forgot her investment, now it’s worth 6.2x in 11 years

The best investors, it turns out, may be the ones who forget they even invested. That’s the core message from Saurabh Nanavati, MD & CEO of Invesco India AMC, who believes the real wealth in mutual funds is created not by market timing—but by time in the market.

In a candid video, Nanavati shared a telling anecdote about a relative that underscores this philosophy. “I just had an aunt last week who said she didn’t even remember her investment,” he said. Curious, he asked his team to dig up her folio. What they found surprised even him: an investment made in 2014 had grown by over 6.2 times in just 11 years.

“She was so happy,” Nanavati said, adding that the fund wasn’t even a high-risk play. “It’s not a mid- or small-cap fund—it’s our flagship Contra Fund.”

For Nanavati, the story highlights a broader behavioral truth: investors who hold on—and stay the course—often outperform those constantly tinkering with their portfolios. “People who forget about their investments for the long term have made far more money than those who churn every 2–3 years,” he explained.

Chasing winners year after year, Nanavati warns, can be a costly trap. “The winner of last year may not be the winner of the future,” he said. Frequent switching—sometimes triggered by changing financial advisors—can derail compounding and long-term returns.

But investor behavior, he notes, is slowly evolving. “The big change I’m seeing is behavioral,” Nanavati observed. “Most SIP sizes now are coming in for 10-year periods or even set on perpetual.” That shift—from short-term speculation to long-term conviction—is, in his view, a healthy sign for Indian retail investing.