The two ways serious portfolios go beyond mutual funds. One keeps the stocks in your own name; the other opens a door to private markets. Here is each, made clear.
Most people start with mutual funds - pooled, simple, liquid. Past a certain size, two other tools open up. A PMS manages a portfolio of stocks individually for you, held in your own name. An AIF pools money into private opportunities the public market can't reach. Different jobs, both for investors ready to commit more and look further out.
A PMS is a portfolio of shares, chosen and managed for you by a SEBI-registered portfolio manager - but held in a demat account in your own name. You own the actual stocks, not units of a fund. The minimum is ₹50 lakh, set by SEBI.
Together we agree the objective, the risk you'll accept, and any constraints - sectors to avoid, income needs, time horizon.
Stocks are bought and held in a demat account in your name. You own them directly - not a pooled unit.
A SEBI-registered portfolio manager makes the buy and sell calls to your mandate. Discretionary, professional, accountable.
Holding-by-holding reporting, whenever you want it. You always know exactly what you own and why.
An AIF is a privately pooled fund that invests beyond ordinary shares and bonds - in pre-IPO companies, private equity, private credit or special strategies. The minimum is ₹1 crore, set by SEBI. You trade day-to-day liquidity for access to opportunities the public market simply doesn't offer, and you hold for years.
Illustrative only - this shape is known as "the J-curve". Real funds vary; capital is committed for years with no assured exit, and value early on is on paper, not yet realised. The four phases below map onto it left to right.
You commit capital. The fund draws it down gradually as it finds the right deals.
The manager builds a concentrated portfolio of private or pre-IPO companies.
Those companies scale. Value is built privately, away from daily market noise.
The fund exits through an IPO or a sale and returns capital. An IPO is a milestone, not always the exit.
Start-ups, infrastructure, social and venture funds - areas SEBI sees as positive for the economy.
Private equity, pre-IPO and private credit funds. The most common type for HNI portfolios.
Hedge-fund-style funds using long-short and complex public-market strategies.
Neither replaces a mutual fund - they sit further along the same path, asking for a larger ticket and a longer horizon in return for what they offer.
Pooled, professionally managed, highly liquid. The everyday core of most portfolios.
A bond with a market-linked payoff, fixed by formula up front. A structured diversifier.
A portfolio of stocks held in your own name and managed for you, individually.
A pooled private fund reaching strategies beyond the public market - like pre-IPO.
Minimums are set by SEBI or the product, not by us. See MLDs explained →
Both PMS and AIFs ask for more than a mutual fund does. You commit a larger sum, you accept less liquidity - an AIF in particular locks money away for years - and your outcome leans heavily on the manager's skill. Portfolios are more concentrated, so they can move more than a diversified fund, up and down.
The message is simple: by conversation, but we can access a wide range. We don't push one in-house product. We shortlist PMS strategies and AIFs against your mandate, read each track record honestly - the bad years too - and walk through fees, lock-ins and fit before anything is committed. Specific strategies and current funds are shared privately, on request.
Investors who have built a core, can meet the minimums, can stay invested through a full cycle, and want either a portfolio run in their own name (PMS) or a way into private markets (AIF) - explained clearly first.
PMS and AIF investments carry market risk and are subject to SEBI-mandated minimums (₹50 lakh for PMS, ₹1 crore for AIFs). They are less liquid than mutual funds, can be concentrated, and depend on the manager; AIFs typically lock in capital for several years with no assured exit. There are no guaranteed or assured returns. Past performance is not indicative of future results. BrokerBriefs is a distributor of financial products, not the portfolio manager and not a SEBI-registered investment adviser; this page is educational, not personalised advice or a solicitation.