SIFs Need ₹10L: Is Your Portfolio Ready to Invest?

SEBI has launched Specialized Investment Funds — a new investment category above mutual funds but below PMS. ET Money is the first platform offering access. Minimum investment is ₹10 lakh. These funds use advanced strategies like derivatives and hedging.

Here's what happened: SEBI introduced Specialized Investment Funds (SIFs), a new regulated investment category sitting between regular mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services (PMS).. SIFs allow fund managers to use advanced strategies like derivatives, long-short positioning, and tactical hedging — tools largely unavailable in standard mutual fund mandates.. ET Money, part of the 360 ONE WAM group, became India's first investment platform to offer access to SIFs with an analytical layer that evaluates each fund's risk profile and objective..

What you should do: Check if your existing portfolio already exceeds ₹10 lakh in mutual funds — only then does evaluating SIFs as a next step make practical sense.. Compare the declared strategy and derivative exposure of any SIF you consider, since two funds in the same SEBI category can have very different risk outcomes.. Verify the tax treatment of a specific SIF with your CA before investing — it follows the mutual fund structure but the applicable rate depends on the fund's underlying asset mix..

SIFs use the mutual fund tax structure — if the fund holds 65%+ equity, long-term gains above ₹1.25 lakh are taxed at 12.5%, same as equity mutual funds. Confirm the equity ratio before investing.

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