More NPS Fund Managers: Is Your Pension Growing?

PFRDA now lets eligible companies apply anytime to manage NPS and UPS money. More competition among pension fund managers could mean better returns and lower costs for your retirement savings.

Here's what happened: PFRDA switched from periodic to open, on-tap registration for pension fund managers under NPS and the new Unified Pension Scheme.. Any eligible financial firm can now apply at any time to manage retirement assets, removing the earlier fixed application windows.. The move is designed to increase competition among fund managers, potentially improving returns and service quality for NPS subscribers..

What you should do: Log in to your NPS account at npscra.nsdl.co.in and compare your current fund manager's 5-year returns against peers.. Check if your NPS is in the Active or Auto choice — Active choice lets you pick your own fund manager for potentially higher equity returns.. If your fund manager's returns consistently lag the NPS benchmark, initiate a switch — PFRDA allows one free fund manager switch per year..

Most NPS subscribers never change their default fund manager. Switching to a better-performing manager costs ₹0 and can add lakhs to your corpus over 20 years.