The National Pension System (NPS) is a voluntary contributory pension system that aims to provide pension income in retirement through market-linked returns. Any citizen of India between the age of 18 and 65 years is eligible to open an NPS account. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) can also open an NPS account.
The pension scheme now manages over Rs 7.73 lakh crore as retirement assets of the government and private sector employees.
According to tax and investment experts, one must carefully choose a fund manager while investing in NPS.
Explains Amar Ranu, head – investment products and advisory, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers: “Though NPS is a low-cost pension product, choosing the right fund manager is the most important task. However, unlike mutual funds (MFs), the information related to NPS is available in a very limited capacity in the public domain, and nor does any vendor holistically collect the data. The portfolio is not available for all NPS managers.”
Earlier, there were seven NPS managers; however, recently four more have been added, which takes the total number of fund managers to 11. So, the task becomes even more daunting for retail investors to select the right fund manager. The four asset managers that have recently been given certification for managing NPS assets are: Axis Asset Management, DSP Investment Managers, Tata Pension Funds, and Max Life Pensions.
Adds Ranu: “Seeing the historical performance, more or less,…
