Pension fund smoothens the registration process; applicants can now submit e-forms

Ministry of Finance on Tuesday announced that in order to smoothen the process of registration of "retirement advisers", the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has transformed the process of submitting application from physical mode to online mode. 

Defining "retirement adviser", the Ministry said it could be any individual, registered partnership firm, body corporate, or any registered trust or society, which desires to engage in the activity of providing advice on National Pension System or other pension schemes regulated by PFRDA to prospects / existing subscribers or other persons or group of persons and is registered as such under the PFRDA (Retirement Advisers) Regulations. 

According to the Ministry, the applicants can now submit their application online and upload scanned images of all the required documents. 

"PFRDA is registering Retirement Advisers for widening the coverage of NPS by facilitating on boarding of the subscribers and also providing advisory services to them for allocating assets under NPS and choosing Pension Fund Managers," the Ministry said.

However, Investment Advisers registered with SEBI are exempted from the requirement of such certifications and they can directly submit their application to PFRDA for registration, the Ministry added.