Questions
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often, answered at the length they actually deserve. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Working with Prenam
We are an AMFI-registered mutual fund distributor. We help you decide how much to invest and into which category of mutual fund given your goals and horizon, we place and service those transactions, and we review the portfolio with you over time. We distribute mutual funds only — no insurance, bonds, PMS, AIFs or structured products.
No. Prenam Asset Distribution LLP is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-371383). We are not registered with SEBI as an Investment Adviser, which means we do not provide investment advice, portfolio management or financial planning services for a fee. We provide only the incidental services that regulations permit a distributor to provide. If your situation calls for formal fee-based advice, we will tell you so and suggest you engage a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser.
Nothing is charged to you by us. We receive trail commission from the Asset Management Company on Regular Plan investments made through us. That commission sits inside the scheme’s Total Expense Ratio, which is deducted before the NAV is published — so it is not an extra charge on top of your investment. Direct Plans carry no distributor commission and therefore a lower expense ratio; they are available to you directly from the AMC without us. Our full commission disclosure explains the arrangement in detail.
If you are comfortable researching schemes, constructing an allocation, rebalancing it, handling your own paperwork and — most importantly — sitting still during a severe fall without anyone to talk to, Direct Plans will cost you less and you should use them. We mean that sincerely.
What a distributor adds is a process, continuity and a person to call at the moments when investors do the most damage to themselves. Whether that is worth the expense-ratio difference depends entirely on you, and it is a reasonable question to ask us directly.
Yes. Onboarding and transactions are handled digitally, so distance is not an obstacle — we work with investors across Punjab and elsewhere in India. That said, we do prefer at least one proper conversation, by video call if not in person, before anything is invested.
Your money and your records
No. Money moves from your own bank account directly to the Asset Management Company through a regulated exchange platform. We never hold, pool or route your funds. Please never transfer money to any individual’s account on the instruction of anybody claiming to represent us — it is not how this works, and it never will be.
Yours. Units are allotted in your name and your holdings are recorded with the AMC and its Registrar & Transfer Agent (CAMS or KFintech). We appear only as the distributor code on the folio. If you stopped working with us tomorrow, your investments would be entirely unaffected.
You will receive a Consolidated Account Statement by email every month from CAMS or KFintech, covering all your mutual fund holdings across every AMC, regardless of who you invested through. You can also request one at any time from the CAMS or KFintech websites. We encourage you to read it — it is an independent record that does not depend on us.
Your nominee can claim the units through the AMC’s transmission process. This is precisely why we insist on nomination being registered at the outset and kept current — a missing or outdated nomination turns a straightforward process into a long and distressing one for your family. We will help with the paperwork when it is needed.
Getting started
Many schemes accept a SIP of ₹500 a month, and we are happy to start there. What matters far more than the amount is whether you can sustain it. A ₹1,000 SIP maintained for fifteen years does more than a ₹5,000 one abandoned after eight months.
PAN, Aadhaar, a cancelled cheque or bank statement for the account you will invest from, and a photograph. If you have invested in mutual funds before, your KYC is likely already registered with a KRA and will simply need verifying rather than redoing.
If your KYC is already complete, usually a few working days from the first conversation to the first instalment. If KYC needs to be done from scratch, allow a week or so for verification before anything can be invested.
Existing units cannot simply be transferred between distributors without a change-of-broker process, and in many cases it is not worth doing — the trail on legacy units continues to the original distributor. In practice, most investors start fresh contributions through us while leaving historical holdings where they are. We will review everything either way, and we will tell you honestly when moving something is not worth the effort.
Risk, returns and tax
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Returns are not assured, are not guaranteed by anyone, and the value of your investment can fall as well as rise. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Any figure you see on this site or in our calculators is an illustration based on an assumed rate — it is arithmetic, not a forecast.
Yes. Equity funds in particular can fall substantially and stay down for extended periods. This is not a remote possibility — it is a normal feature of how these investments behave, and any plan we build with you assumes it will happen more than once over a long horizon. The purpose of matching investments to a time horizon is to make sure you are never forced to sell during one of those periods.
For open-ended schemes, yes — redeem at any time, with proceeds generally credited to your bank account within a few working days. Two exceptions: ELSS funds carry a statutory three-year lock-in applied to each instalment separately, and some schemes levy an exit load if you redeem within a defined period of investing. Both are always flagged to you before you invest.
Taxation depends on the type of scheme, how long you held the units, and your own tax position — and the rules have changed more than once in recent years. Because it is specific to you and liable to change, we will not state rates here. We will explain the implications of any particular transaction before you make it, and for anything beyond the straightforward we would encourage you to confirm your position with a qualified tax professional.
Start with us — our grievance redressal page sets out exactly who to contact and how quickly we will respond. If we fail to resolve it, you can escalate to the AMC or RTA concerned, and ultimately to SEBI’s own platforms, SCORES and SMART ODR. Raising a grievance costs nothing and will never affect how we treat you.
Still unsure?
Ask the question that is actually bothering you.
There is no such thing as a question too basic to ask us. Most of what is on this page started as one.