National Pension System (NPS) is a government scheme which allows subscribers to create a retirement corpus by regular contributions to Tier 1 and Tier 2 accounts. At the time of opening the NPS account, the subscriber has to choose whether he/she would like to allocate the funds across asset classes or through an auto choice option which allocates the funds in line with the age of the subscriber. Funds of the NPS are managed by independent portfolio managers. The subscriber needs to choose the fund manager at the time of account opening. However, the subscriber can make changes to the investment choice or the portfolio manager online later, using the following process.

NPS portal
The subscriber must log in to the NPS subscriber portal at https://cra-nsdl. com/CRA/. The login id is the PRAN number of the subscriber.

Change scheme preference
The subscriber needs to click on the “Transact Online” tab and then choose “Change Scheme Preference”. Now, the subscriber needs to choose the account- Tier 1 or Tier 2, click on the desired scheme i.e. Active Choice or Auto choice – Conservative / Moderate or Aggressive auto choice. If the change is being made to active choice, the asset allocation percentage will also have to be indicated across the asset classes.

Change portfolio manager
The subscriber can also change the portfolio management company which manages the pension fund. This change can be carried out by clicking on the “Transact Online” tab and choosing the “Change PFM” option. The subscriber can select the desired PFM from the available options and then submit the request.

Points to note

• Change in portfolio manager can be done after analysing and comparing the investment returns of NPS portfolio managers over similar time horizons for a particular asset class.
• These changes can also be carried out by visiting the office of the POP-SP and submitting the form for carrying out the change.

(Content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Girija Gadre, Arti Bhargava and Labdhi Mehta.)

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