Becoming a retirement advisor is now just a click away. In order to ease the registration process of retirement advisors (RAs), applicants can now apply online on the PFRDA website. The pension fund regulator has done away with physical application forms altogether.
The Ministry of Finance announced today that PFRDA has transformed the process of submitting application from physical to online mode.
“In order to increase the coverage of National Pension System (NPS), the pension fund regulator has decided to ease the registration process of retirement advisors. Applicants can now submit their application online and upload scanned images of all the required documents. This will reduce the application processing time,” PFRDA stated.
Recently, PFRDA allowed IFAs to distribute NPS. IFAs have to pass NISM-Series-XVII: Retirement Advisor Certification Examination to become a retirement advisor (RA). However, PFRDA has exempted investment advisors registered with SEBI from the requirement of such certifications –they can directly submit their application to PFRDA for registration.
By becoming RAs, IFAs can charge a consultancy fee of 0.02% of AUM from NPS subscribers. This fee ranges between Rs100 and Rs1,000. In addition, RAs can charge an on-boarding fee of up to Rs120 per subscriber registration. RAs can also charge a fee on other services like Rs20 for each transaction or Rs100 annually. These charges have to be recovered directly from investors.
