Long-term retention value rose 12% once the tax showed before the click

Users: every FundsIndia investor who starts a mutual fund redemption, on web, Android and iOS. Team: 4, working with design, engineering and QA. What I owned: the redemption journey, from the churn model and the tax and exit load breakdown to the in-flow loan option, UAT sign-off and the impact analysis. UX and experimentation on this journey lifted feature adoption by 15%.

Investors who clicked Redeem only saw the capital gains tax and exit load after the money had left. Some of those redemptions were premature. The investor would have paid less by waiting, or could have borrowed against the fund instead of selling it.

Before these changes, retention relied on sales calling users within 2 hours of a redemption request to try to keep the assets invested.

• Most people leaving don't need to sell. Users who gave a reason usually wanted the money out or had reached a goal. That is a need for cash, and a loan against the fund can meet it without ending the investment.

• A charge you see changes your decision. A charge you find out about later only creates regret. Showing short-term gains, long-term gains and exit load on the amount page lets the investor decide with the full picture.

• Intent held steady, so any change came from the flow. The early steps of the redemption journey held roughly steady from October 2025 to January 2026, while completion fell. The change came from what users saw on the amount page, not from fewer people wanting to redeem.

• Only call users after they redeem, which was the status quo. It needs no product work, but it arrives after the decision.

• Block or discourage redemption. Rejected. It's the investor's money, and a hard stop damages trust. The flow keeps a clear Continue path and a Will wait exit.

• Inform, and offer an alternative inside the flow. This is what we shipped. We offered a loan first, then showed the tax and exit-load breakdown before confirming. The tradeoff is fewer completed redemptions, which is the point.

• Non-resident accounts, segregated folios, and HUF and corporate tax were left for later releases. The first release covered most exit-load cases.

• I shared the redemption screens with the lending partner and worked on the copy with them. I briefed them on the sales team's retention calls in July 2025.

• I ran the exit-load walkthroughs and design reviews with engineering, design and QA. I wrote and sent the release notes, and signed off testing on web, Android and iOS on 3 October 2025.

• I built the impact analysis from October 2025 to January 2026. It covered stage-by-stage behaviour, where users went after seeing the charges, and loan take-up by month.

• I collected advisor feedback and turned it into the next iteration.

• Loan exploration at redemption rose from about 6% to 9.5%, driven by the loan nudges in the redemption flow.

• 12% higher long-term retention value.

• Completion fell by design. Fewer investors went through with a redemption once they saw the true cost, while their early intent stayed the same. Of those who stopped after seeing the charges, many went on to look at the loan option or at other schemes rather than leaving the app.

• What didn't work. More users explored the loan, but direct loan take-up at the redemption step didn't grow with it. The loan screen was acting more as a friction point than a conversion driver. It created a pause before redeeming, but it didn't turn undecided users into borrowers.

• Advisors found parts of the breakdown confusing. Clients didn't read the estimated tax or the disclaimer, and the word losses confused them.

• Clients couldn't find the ₹1.25 lakh exemption.

• Some exit loads showed as not computed. Most deduction calculations were correct.

• Reword losses.

• State the ₹1.25 lakh exemption assumption.

• Add a column for the actual amount credited to the bank.

• Show the units behind each tax and exit-load figure.

• Cover the exit-load cases the first release left out.

• Later iterations, in November and December 2025, explored a liquid-fund switcher and messaging about waiting a few days to save tax.

• Measure the alternative, not just the drop. A lower redemption rate only counts as retention if the money stays, in another scheme, as a loan, or invested for longer.