Demat accounts allow consolidation of investments. It is not just equities that you can hold in your demat account. You can hold your equity shares, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, and even your insurance policies in demat format. This enables you to get a consolidated view of your investments at one go. In fact, you can maintain your entire portfolio at one place in the demat account itself. Nowadays, it is also possible to hold mutual funds in your demat account and also sell it from the demat account itself.