Beyond FDs: Why Smart Investors Are Exploring Fixed-Income Alternatives

For decades, fixed deposits have been the first port of call for Indian savers. They offer security, simplicity, and guaranteed returns. But today, even the most disciplined FD investor is beginning to ask: is this enough?

With inflation consistently hovering above 6%, and with sophisticated opportunities now available outside traditional instruments, relying solely on FDs means your capital is merely treading water rather than creating wealth. At Merisis Wealth, we see this gap every day when interacting with founders, CXOs, HNIs, NRIs, and treasury professionals who come to us seeking smarter ways to grow their money.

Our recent webinar — “Earn Beyond Fixed Deposits” — brought this conversation to life. Led by Naresh Bulchandani, CFA, CAIA, Head of Products & Investment Strategy at Merisis Wealth, the session explored how disciplined, yield-oriented strategies can potentially deliver 12–16% IRR while balancing risk, liquidity, and transparency.

The Shifting Landscape: Why FDs Alone Don’t Work Anymore

• Inflation eats into real returns: A 7% FD in a 6% inflation environment leaves you with negligible wealth creation.

• Opportunity cost is rising: Credit and structured investment avenues today offer returns that can comfortably outpace FDs — if managed right.

• Diversification is critical: Portfolios heavily concentrated in FDs are exposed to reinvestment and interest-rate risks without capturing upside elsewhere.

This doesn’t mean FDs are redundant. At Merisis Wealth, we still recommend them as liquidity buffers or emergency funds. But as a long-term growth strategy, they cannot stand alone.

Beyond FDs: Where Can Investors Look?

During the session, we outlined the pillars of wealth strategies that are working today for our clients:

1. Private Credit & Structured Debt
   Identifying credit gaps where risk is priced attractively, with due diligence and governance.

2. Yield-Focused Alternatives
   Instruments that offer stable payouts while mitigating downside risk through buffers and diversification.

3. Tiered Liquidity Design
   Staggering maturities ensures some capital remains accessible at all times, even as other tranches are deployed longer term.

4. Inflation-Beating Products
   The focus is always on real returns, not just nominal numbers.

5. Rigorous Governance & Monitoring
   Transparency, regular reporting, and independent oversight are non-negotiable in every product we bring to clients.

Who Is This For?

At Merisis Wealth, we find that these solutions resonate most with:

• Founders & Promoters managing liquidity from partial exits or cash flow surpluses

• CXOs, Professionals & NRIs seeking to compound wealth beyond traditional allocations

• Treasury Management Professionals tasked with extending the runway of capital without compromising safety

The Merisis Wealth Approach

What differentiates Merisis Wealth is not just the products we bring, but how we curate them. We are not chasing the “flavor of the season.” Instead, we:

• Conduct deep due diligence and stress testing before introducing any product to our clients

• Align strategies with an investor’s unique goals and liquidity profile

• Offer transparency through detailed reporting and portfolio monitoring

• Focus relentlessly on risk-adjusted returns, not just headline numbers

As Naresh highlighted in the webinar: “It’s not about chasing yield at all costs. It’s about structuring portfolios so that risk and reward are balanced, and wealth grows consistently above inflation.”

Moving Forward: What Should You Do?

If your portfolio today is largely FD-driven, here are three steps you can consider:

1. Reassess your allocations — Understand what % of your wealth is in instruments that merely preserve value vs those that create it.

2. Carve out an alternatives bucket — Even a 5–10% allocation to well-curated strategies can change your long-term trajectory.

3. Seek expert guidance — Navigating credit and structured products requires institutional-grade research and monitoring. This is where a wealth partner like Merisis can add significant value.

Final Word

Earning beyond fixed deposits is not about abandoning safety. It is about evolving with the times — using intelligent strategies, professional research, and disciplined execution to ensure your wealth compounds meaningfully.

At Merisis Wealth, our mission is to help clients create alpha through alternatives — bridging the gap between conventional savings and truly wealth-generating strategies.

📩 If you’d like to explore how these opportunities might fit into your portfolio, our team would be delighted to have a conversation with you.

👉 Get in touch with us today and take the first step toward earning beyond fixed deposits or a deeper conversation.

Watch the full webinar here