NPS Funds: Are You in the Wrong Scheme?

Not all NPS pension funds perform equally. Some beat their benchmark with lower risk, while others lag badly. Knowing how to compare NPS fund performance can make a huge difference to your retirement corpus over 20-30 years.

Here's what happened: NPS offers multiple asset classes — Equity (E), Corporate Debt (C), Government Securities (G), and Alternative Assets (A) — each managed by PFRDA-registered pension fund managers whose returns vary significantly.. Consistent outperformance over 3-5 year rolling periods, not just recent returns, is the standard way to identify a reliable NPS fund manager worth staying with.. Subscribers can switch their pension fund manager once per year at no cost, a facility available on the CRA (Central Recordkeeping Agency) portal — NPS Trust, Karvy, or KFintech depending on your employer..

What you should do: Log into your NPS CRA portal (cra-nsdl.com or npscra.nsdl.co.in) and note your current fund manager and scheme performance over 3 and 5 years.. Compare your fund manager's annualised returns against at least two other PFRDA-registered PFMs in the same asset class (E, C, or G) before deciding whether to switch.. Check your asset allocation — if you are under 40, ensure your Tier-1 equity allocation is at least 50-75% under Active Choice to maximise long-term growth potential..

Under NPS Active Choice, you can allocate up to 75% in equity until age 50 — Auto Choice locks you into a declining equity glide path that may be too conservative for younger earners.

For readers weighing their credit and loan options, our personal loan guide and CIBIL score resources put this update in context.