₹50 lakhs.
That's the minimum SEBI has set for Portfolio Management Services in India. Not ₹5 lakhs. Not ₹10 lakhs. Fifty.
That number isn't a barrier. It's a signal - about who this product is built for, and why it works the way it does.
What Portfolio Management Services actually are
Portfolio Management Services (PMS) is a SEBI - regulated structure where a professional fund manager runs an equity portfolio held directly in your name, in your own demat account.
Read that again - in your own demat account. Not units in a pooled fund. Actual shares. When the manager buys Infosys for your portfolio, Infosys shares appear in your demat. You see every holding, every transaction, in real time.
This is the single most fundamental difference between Portfolio Management Services and every pooled investment structure: ownership sits with you, management sits with a professional.
How the arrangement works
In a discretionary PMS - the dominant model in India - the mechanics are straightforward:
You sign an agreement with the PMS provider and execute a Power of Attorney (POA) authorising the fund manager to transact on your behalf within the agreed strategy.
At the time of signing, you can declare a negative list - companies or sectors you never want in your portfolio. No tobacco. No alcohol. A competitor of your own business. Whatever matters to you. That exclusion is honoured permanently.
Beyond the negative list, execution belongs entirely to the fund manager. They buy, sell, and rebalance based on the strategy you signed up for - without seeking your approval on each trade. That professional discretion is precisely what you're engaging them for.
What you get for the ₹50 lakh threshold
A concentrated portfolio - typically 15 to 30 stocks - built and managed with institutional research depth. Direct ownership with full transparency. Access to capabilities unavailable in mutual fund structures - including covered call writing on existing holdings and concentration beyond the single-stock caps that apply to mutual funds.
And performance reporting under a single SEBI-mandated standard - TWRR - that makes every Portfolio Management Services strategy in the country comparable on the same basis.
The honest caveat
PMS is not a starting point. It's a structure for investors who have already built a foundation - typically through mutual funds and direct equity - and are now deploying incremental capital that has outgrown one-size-fits-all products.
Every transaction in a PMS portfolio is also a taxable event in your hands, exactly like direct equity. A professionally managed portfolio may transact more often than you would on your own. That's a factor worth understanding before entry, not after.
Where to start
India has 400+ Portfolio Management Services strategies registered with APMI. The AND Fintech PMS dashboard ranks them by what actually matters - consistent returns and Alpha across multiple years - so a decision that could take weeks of research starts in minutes.