SEBI's PRIM Route: Who Should Invest ₹25L?

SEBI has introduced a new route called PRIM that lets investors hand over their mutual fund portfolio to a professional manager for a minimum of ₹25 lakh — half the earlier ₹50 lakh limit for Portfolio Management Services. Here's what this means for upper-middle-class Indian investors.

Here's what happened: SEBI introduced PRIM (Portfolio Manager for Regulated Investment in Mutual Funds), a new managed-portfolio route specifically for mutual fund investments with a reduced minimum ticket of ₹25 lakh.. The earlier Portfolio Management Service (PMS) required a minimum investment of ₹50 lakh and allowed managers to hold direct equities, bonds, and other securities — PRIM is limited to mutual fund instruments only.. Under PRIM, a SEBI-registered portfolio manager takes discretionary or advisory control of your mutual fund holdings, selecting funds, allocation, and rebalancing on your behalf for a fee..

What you should do: Calculate total annual cost before signing up: add the PRIM manager's fee (typically 1–2.5% p.a.) plus the expense ratios of the underlying mutual funds — compare this to a direct-plan index fund portfolio you manage yourself.. Verify the portfolio manager's SEBI registration on the SEBI intermediary portal (sebi.gov.in) before transferring any funds — never hand over ₹25 lakh to an unregistered advisor claiming PRIM access.. Check if your existing MF corpus is already above ₹25 lakh before considering PRIM — only invest surplus wealth here, never your emergency fund, home loan down payment savings, or short-term goals..

PRIM portfolios are taxed at the investor level — every fund switch the manager makes inside your portfolio is a taxable event for YOU, not the manager. Request a tax-impact report quarterly.