PFRDA, in its circular dated November 4, 2016, added two more options of life cycle funds under Auto Choice option viz. Aggressive Life Cycle Fund and Conservative Life Fund.
These options are in addition to Existing life cycle fund (Moderate life cycle fund or LC 50), which shall still be the default fund.
Therefore, investors will have three options to choose under Auto Choice option.
Under Auto Choice option, NPS subscribers do not have to do any asset allocation on their own. Rebalancing (reallocation) among the asset classes happens done automatically on the date of birth of the subscriber.
Do note these additional options are only for Private Sector Subscribers (Subscribers under All Citizens Model). Government subscribers shall not have these two options. For Government subscribers, the equity allocation is still capped at 15%.
Aggressive Life Cycle Fund (LC 75)
Under the aggressive life cycle fund, the exposure to equity (E) is 75% upto the age of 35 and gradually goes down to 15% by the time you turn 55. Subsequently, the allocation stays the same till such time you exit NPS.
The intent of an Aggressive Life Cycle Fund is to provide young investors greater exposure to equity without the hassle of managing allocation themselves.
Conservative Life Cycle Fund (LC 25)
Under the Conservative life cycle fund, the exposure to equity (E) is 25% upto the age of 35 and gradually goes down to 5% by the time you turn 55. Subsequently, the allocation stays the same till such time you exit NPS. Clearly, Conservative Life Cycle Fund is for risk averse investors.
Points to Note
As I understand, the maximum allocation to equity under Active Choice (subscriber chooses the asset allocation) is still capped at 50%.
So, the exposure to equity can be up to 75% under Auto Choice, but it is capped at 50% under Active choice.
Sounds bizarre. Perhaps, we will have a notification from PFRDA in the near future that rectifies this anomaly.
Addition of a New Asset Class
PFRDA has added a new asset class ‘A’ for Alternative Investments for private sector subscribers. This asset class is in addition to three existing asset classes i.e. Equity (E), Corporate Bonds (C) and Government Debt (G).
Investment in Asset Class (A) shall comprise the following:
- Commercial mortgage based securities or Residential mortgage based securities
- Units issued by Real Estate Investment Trusts regulated by SEBI
- Asset backed securities regulated SEBI
- Units issued by Infrastructure Investment Trusts regulated by SEBI
- Alternative Investment Funds (AIF Category I and II) registered with SEBI
Points to Note
- Total Allocation (E + C + G + A) =100%.
- Equity exposure (E) capped at 50%. Exposure to C and G capped at 100%.
- Exposure to A capped at 5%.
- This new asset class is not available to Government subscribers.
- Available only to Private Sector subscribers (All Citizens Model)
- Asset class (A) is also not available under Auto Choice. As we discussed in the previous section, there is no allocation to Asset Class ‘A’.
- Shall be available under Active choice mode
PersonalFinancePlan Take
Much ado about nothing. You can always choose Active Choice option and select equity exposure on your own.
In any case, there is no reason to invest more than Rs 50,000 in NPS per annum, if you are contributing voluntarily. If you want a higher equity exposure to equity, you can always invest in equity mutual funds.
About the additional asset class (A), I am not really sure. Yes, from diversification purposes, you can explore an additional asset class. However, I am not really verse with the pricing of this asset. Don’t think the markets for such assets are much developed in India. For now, I am not too keen on Asset class (A) but my opinion may change in the future.
30 thoughts on “NPS updates: Two New Life Cycle Funds and a New Asset Class”
Sir..Pls tell me the ideal allocation in nps. I am 30 so pls inform the allocation between E, C, A & G. Pls inform as per my age. I can take risk.
Thanq..
Also tell me whether to opt active choice or auto choice…
If you can’t decide, you can go for auto choice.
Go active choice
As u r 30 u can take risk of equity.
E-50
C-23
G-22
A-5
There is no such thing as ideal allocation.
Sir
i started at age 56 , after 4 years at age 60 years can i withdraw from tier 1 60%+ 40%,
or i should wait till 66 before i can withdraw , that is after being invested for 10 years.
Dear Sir,
You will be able to exit after 60. Don’t have to wait for 10 years.
Sir…I wanted to go for HDFC fund with aggressive life cycle from April 1st. My present investment is in SBI pension fund with active choice of 20% in E, 50% in C & 30% in G.The amount as per latest nav is 19.38 lacs. I can bear risk and want to wait for 10 more years. Pls advice whether my decision to change to HDFC & also to aggressive life cycle is good or not. Thanq sir…
Can’t comment. Are you disappointed with performance of SBI pension fund?
Yes sir…Among all when I compared returns, HDFC is doing good. OK sir…shall I go with aggressive life cycle?
Personally, I wouldn’t worry much.
Btw, with NPS, your investment horizon is your time till retirement. Investment horizon is not your choice.
You have to look at your other investments too before you make this choice. If your other investments are conservative, you can invest aggressively and increase exposure to equity in NPS.
Thanq for quick reply…I will shift to HDFC fund with aggressive life cycle as I have done enough conservative investments. Thanq sir
I can take risk and my time horizon is 10+ years…Is aggressive life cycle advisable???
Sir, I shifted to HDFC pension fund with agressive option by raising a request online.
Thank you.
You are welcome, Naik.
Sir,
If I change the scheme preference from “Auto” to “aggressive auto”, will my existing investment balance also get reallocated/rebalanced? Or it is applicable for just new contributions I am making? Is it wise to switch to “aggressive auto” when Equity market is all time high?
Please advise!
Deepesh, do you know if active choice equity allocation remains at 50% irrespective of age? Its clear from your blog (I also checked on NPS site) and circular that Aggressive option is available only to Auto choice subscribers (All citizen model) and will be reduced to 15% at the age of 55. Any idea if active choice equity allocation also reduce? I guess yes (check the moderate plan) but this clarification should come from PFRDA.
Dear Sarang,
Yes, it remains the same unless you change it. That’s why the name is active plan. You control it.
Thank you Deepesh. I have changed my plan to Auto-aggressive recently. Since you can change plan once a year, I have a investment strategy in mind. Allow auto scheme invest more in equity (than Active where equity is capped at 50% ) as I can take risk. When it reduce to around 50% when I turn 41 years, I will change it to Active again. This way I will invest more in equity and benefit from markets returns. Anytime, equity score more than debt products.
Hi Sarang,
How do you know equity will give very good returns till such time you turn 41?
Hi Deepesh,
Thats a good question. I am investing in equities (via MF 🙂 only) since last decade+ and not expert in analysing, but my investment in some good funds made a good returns and I continue holding them. There will be bear phase but not for those many years? And even its bear phase, I will keep adding money and buy units and hope to get fruit when markets does well some years later. No one can predict exact market condition though, but with past experience I am certainly positive with equity
Do you expect a bad market for couple of years? Hope I didnt do a big mistake 🙁
Hi Sarang,
You seem to have the right approach.
Just that do not over-complicate things. Keep it simple.
Markets will move in phases. If you are still in the accumulation phase, volatility will work in your favour.
Volatility is a problem for short-term goals.
Suggest you go through the following post.
https://www.personalfinanceplan.in/opinion/financial-planning-retirement/
Thank you very much Deepesh. Yes, I’m at accumulation stage (I’m 35 yrs) and for another 15 years I would like to continue. The right choice of mutual funds and your advising articles making me confident about the retirement life.
Your articles mostly talks about instruments available in market, but don’t talk about investment in real estate, if I’m missing any of your old ones. How do you look at buying a commercial property like shop in city like Pune? That can give more returns over period than equities (not always though) but don’t see people talking much about it. I might be wrong!
Appreciate your inputs.
Real estate market is not homogeneous. Therefore, it becomes difficult to comment.
There are too many operational hassles.
Anyways, not my cup of tea.
If you find a good commercial property with good rental yields, it may make sense to purchase.
I assume asset allocation does not go for a toss.
Dear Mr. Deepash,
As per the recent changes in NPS, if the corpus is less than Rs. 2.00 lacs, 100% of the corpus is allowed to be withdrawn. What shall be the tax implication on the same. What action is to be taken for getting the optimum tax benefit.
Hi Jitendra,
This rule has been around for quite some time.
60% exempt,remaining 40% taxable
sir my question is who is best fund of nps as show of form can you suggest me.
sir my question is who is best fund of nps as show of form can you suggest me. who is best fund for nps.
Sir I am 41 yrs old now I have started to save in nps. I have selected moderate cycle does it yield more profit to me or I should switch to aggressive cycle. I am confused Sir. Please guide me regarding this?
Sir I am 35 yrs old now working in central govt dept. LC 50 or LC 25 which is best for me? I don’t want risk but I also want the benefit of aggressive equity gets reflected in my nps when I retire. I am confused Sir. Please guide me regarding this?