A play-it-safe fund in the ELSS category, it has retained a four or five-star rating for the last three years, climbing from three stars earlier. It has outperformed its benchmark in eight out of nine years since its launch and its peers in seven of those years.

DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund isn't wedded to any particular style and follows a blended growth-at-a-reasonable-price approach to select stocks. Though multi-cap by mandate, the fund has been quite large-cap oriented in the last five years. Typically, 65 to 75 per cent of the portfolio has been in large-caps and 20 to 25 per cent in mid-caps. The fund also takes tactical calls to capitalise on market trends and opportunities.

DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund margin of outperformance relative to the category and benchmark have been quite impressive. On a three and five-year basis, its annualised returns are over 4 to 5 percentage points ahead of the benchmark returns and 1 to 2 percentage points ahead of the category returns, respectively. It is creditable that this has been managed with a distinct large-cap tilt relative to the category.

The annual return record suggests that the fund lost slightly more than the category in 2008 and 2011. It delivered sizeable outperformance in 2012 and 2016. However, as the fund has seen a change in fund manager in 2015 and also adopted a higher allocation to large-cap stocks, past performance may not be a great guide to the future.