{"id":8203,"date":"2026-10-26T12:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T07:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/1f-dashboard\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=8203"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:07:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T10:37:05","slug":"nps-msf-schemes-compared","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/1f-dashboard\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/","title":{"rendered":"NPS MSF schemes compared: all 20 schemes, their equity limits and size"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since 1 October 2025, NPS pension funds can run their own schemes under the Multiple Scheme Framework (MSF). These sit alongside the standard E, C and G schemes. The headline difference is equity: an MSF scheme can hold up to 100%, against the 75% cap on a regular Tier I account.<\/p>\n<p>A year in, NPS Trust lists 20 MSF schemes holding \u20b91,068 crore. This piece lists every one, shows who dominates, and explains what you sign up for.<\/p>\n<h2>The rules in brief<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Who can invest:<\/strong> non-government subscribers (All Citizen and Corporate models).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Equity:<\/strong> up to 100%, depending on the scheme.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vesting:<\/strong> 15 years, or age 60 if that comes earlier.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Switching:<\/strong> you cannot move between MSF schemes for 15 years. Before then, the only move allowed is out of MSF into the pension fund&#8217;s regular schemes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Money in:<\/strong> fresh contributions only. You cannot shift an existing E, C and G corpus into an MSF scheme.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fees:<\/strong> up to 0.30% a year, against a maximum of 0.12% on regular schemes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Every MSF scheme<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Pension fund<\/th>\n<th>Scheme (as listed by NPS Trust)<\/th>\n<th>Equity range<\/th>\n<th>Assets (\u20b9 crore)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>HDFC<\/td>\n<td>Equity Advantage &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>85%-100%<\/td>\n<td>359.37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>ICICI Prudential<\/td>\n<td>DREAM &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>50%-100%<\/td>\n<td>160.28<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HDFC<\/td>\n<td>Surakshit Income &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>55%-75%<\/td>\n<td>141.14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>ICICI Prudential<\/td>\n<td>My Family &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>50%-85%<\/td>\n<td>88.21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>SBI<\/td>\n<td>Jeevan Swarna &#8211; Tier I<\/td>\n<td>0%-100%<\/td>\n<td>59.26<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Kotak<\/td>\n<td>Kuber Equity &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>80%-100%<\/td>\n<td>40.74<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Axis<\/td>\n<td>Golden Years &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>65%-100%<\/td>\n<td>40.20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>UTI<\/td>\n<td>Wealth Builder E &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>90%-100%<\/td>\n<td>36.66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Tata<\/td>\n<td>Smart Retirement &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>70%-100%<\/td>\n<td>24.95<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>SBI<\/td>\n<td>Akshay Dhara &#8211; Tier I<\/td>\n<td>25%-50%<\/td>\n<td>23.56<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>DSP<\/td>\n<td>Long Term Equity &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>0%-100%<\/td>\n<td>18.95<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Aditya Birla Sun Life<\/td>\n<td>Secure Retirement Equity &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>90%-100%<\/td>\n<td>13.91<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>LIC<\/td>\n<td>Growth Plus &#8211; Tier I<\/td>\n<td>0%-100%<\/td>\n<td>13.62<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HDFC<\/td>\n<td>Surakshit Income &#8211; II<\/td>\n<td>0%-25%<\/td>\n<td>12.73<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>LIC<\/td>\n<td>Smart Balance &#8211; Tier I<\/td>\n<td>65%-85%<\/td>\n<td>11.70<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>UTI<\/td>\n<td>Dynamic Asset &#8211; Tier I<\/td>\n<td>40%-65%<\/td>\n<td>8.03<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Aditya Birla Sun Life<\/td>\n<td>Secure Future &#8211; I<\/td>\n<td>40%-65%<\/td>\n<td>7.93<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>UTI<\/td>\n<td>Wealth Builder E &#8211; II<\/td>\n<td>90%-100%<\/td>\n<td>3.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>UTI<\/td>\n<td>Dynamic Asset &#8211; Tier II<\/td>\n<td>40%-65%<\/td>\n<td>2.23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Kotak<\/td>\n<td>Atmanirbhar Fund<\/td>\n<td>25%-75%<\/td>\n<td>0.64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Total<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><strong>1,068.01<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>NPS Trust, details as on 30 September 2026. Names are as listed by NPS Trust; &#8220;I&#8221; and &#8220;II&#8221; generally refer to Tier I and Tier II. Equity range is the scheme&#8217;s permitted band.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Who runs the money<\/h2>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Pension fund<\/th>\n<th>MSF schemes<\/th>\n<th>Assets (\u20b9 crore)<\/th>\n<th>Share<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>HDFC<\/td>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>513.24<\/td>\n<td>48.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>ICICI Prudential<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>248.49<\/td>\n<td>23.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>SBI<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>82.82<\/td>\n<td>7.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>UTI<\/td>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>50.82<\/td>\n<td>4.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Kotak<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>41.38<\/td>\n<td>3.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Axis<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>40.20<\/td>\n<td>3.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>LIC<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>25.32<\/td>\n<td>2.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Tata<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>24.95<\/td>\n<td>2.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Aditya Birla Sun Life<\/td>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>21.84<\/td>\n<td>2.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>DSP<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>18.95<\/td>\n<td>1.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>HDFC alone manages almost half of all MSF money, and its Equity Advantage scheme is a third of the total. HDFC and ICICI Prudential together hold over 70%. The other eight pension funds have \u20b919 crore to \u20b983 crore each.<\/p>\n<p>The category is growing fast from a small base. MSF assets were about \u20b9145 crore on 1 February 2026 (Outlook Money, citing PFRDA). By 30 September they had passed \u20b91,000 crore. That is still a fraction of a percent of the roughly \u20b94.1 lakh crore in regular Tier I E, C and G schemes run by these ten funds.<\/p>\n<h2>What the equity ranges tell you<\/h2>\n<p>The ranges vary more than the scheme names suggest:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>High equity, minimum 80% or more:<\/strong> HDFC Equity Advantage, Aditya Birla Sun Life Secure Retirement Equity, Kotak Kuber Equity and UTI Wealth Builder.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Equity-led with a lower floor:<\/strong> Tata Smart Retirement (70%\u2013100%), Axis Golden Years (65%\u2013100%) and ICICI Prudential DREAM (50%\u2013100%).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fully flexible, 0% to 100%:<\/strong> DSP Long Term Equity, LIC Growth Plus and SBI Jeevan Swarna. The manager can hold anything from no equity to all equity, so you are buying the manager&#8217;s allocation calls, not a fixed equity exposure.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Balanced:<\/strong> ICICI Prudential My Family (50%\u201385%), LIC Smart Balance (65%\u201385%), HDFC Surakshit Income \u2013 I (55%\u201375%), UTI Dynamic Asset (40%\u201365%), Aditya Birla Sun Life Secure Future (40%\u201365%), Kotak Atmanirbhar (25%\u201375%) and SBI Akshay Dhara (25%\u201350%).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Income-oriented:<\/strong> HDFC Surakshit Income \u2013 II (0%\u201325% equity).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The rules are changing<\/h2>\n<p>On 28 August 2026, PFRDA issued a framework to standardise how NPS schemes are classified and named. For MSF, it sets five categories by equity share:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>MSF category<\/th>\n<th>Equity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>A: Aggressive Growth<\/td>\n<td>80%\u2013100%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>B: High Growth<\/td>\n<td>60%\u201380%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>C: Balanced Growth<\/td>\n<td>35%\u201360%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>D: Conservative<\/td>\n<td>10%\u201335%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>E: Debt<\/td>\n<td>0%\u201310%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>A pension fund can offer at most two schemes per category per tier. Names must follow a fixed format: the fund&#8217;s abbreviation, &#8220;NPS&#8221;, the category code, then the scheme name. Pension funds had 30 days to reclassify and 45 days to merge any excess schemes.<\/p>\n<p>Two things follow. Scheme names and some equity ranges in the table above are likely to change as funds reclassify. And the flexible 0%\u2013100% schemes, as listed, span every category, so they will have to be fitted into one.<\/p>\n<h2>Returns: too early to judge<\/h2>\n<p>Most MSF schemes launched from October 2025, so none has a full-year record that means much. Treat any return figure as noise for now. For a 15-year commitment, the best evidence available today is the same pension fund&#8217;s record in its regular Scheme E.<\/p>\n<h2>The fee difference<\/h2>\n<p>At 0.30%, an MSF scheme costs up to 0.18 percentage points a year more than a regular scheme at 0.12%. On a \u20b910 lakh balance, that is \u20b93,000 a year against \u20b91,200. The gap grows with the balance, every year, for at least 15 years.<\/p>\n<h2>Who MSF suits, and who it doesn&#8217;t<\/h2>\n<p><strong>It can suit you if:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you want more than 75% equity inside NPS;<\/li>\n<li>you can leave the money untouched for 15 years; and<\/li>\n<li>you already hold a regular NPS account and are adding fresh money.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>It doesn&#8217;t suit you if:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you may need the money within 15 years;<\/li>\n<li>you are close to retirement; or<\/li>\n<li>you would rather the lower-cost E, C and G schemes and decide the mix yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For the decision framework, see <a href=\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/new-nps-msf-schemes-with-100-equity-how-to-decide-if-you-should-invest-or-stay-away\/\">New NPS MSF schemes with 100% equity: how to decide if you should invest or stay away<\/a>. To judge the teams behind these schemes, see the <a href=\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-scheme-e-pension-fund-comparison\/\">Scheme E comparison<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Sources: MSF schemes, equity ranges and assets: NPS Trust, details as on 30 September 2026. MSF rules: PFRDA circular of 16 September 2025 and 1 Finance&#8217;s March 2026 explainer. Classification framework: PFRDA circular of 28 August 2026, as reported by Outlook Money. February 2026 assets: Outlook Money. Regular Tier I assets: Value Research, October 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every NPS Multiple Scheme Framework scheme with its equity range and assets as on 30 September 2026, plus the rules, fees and PFRDA&#8217;s new categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_updated_date":"","_blog_featured_landing":false},"blog-category":[383],"acf":{"alt_text":"","include_in_calculator_page":["NPS vs EPF vs Mutual Fund Calculator"],"hash_tags":"","spotify-id":"","show_audio_player":false,"audio_title":"","audio_link":"","key_takeaway":"","article_sources":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.11 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NPS MSF schemes list 2026: all 20 schemes compared<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every NPS Multiple Scheme Framework scheme with its equity range and assets as on 30 September 2026, plus the rules, fees and PFRDA&#039;s new categories.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NPS MSF schemes list 2026: all 20 schemes compared\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every NPS Multiple Scheme Framework scheme with its equity range and assets as on 30 September 2026, plus the rules, fees and PFRDA&#039;s new categories.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blogs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-26T10:37:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3eaaex9d02d1j.cloudfront.net\/assets\/ogimage\/Blog.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@1FinanceHQ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/\",\"name\":\"NPS MSF schemes list 2026: all 20 schemes compared\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-26T07:06:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-26T10:37:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Every NPS Multiple Scheme Framework scheme with its equity range and assets as on 30 September 2026, plus the rules, fees and PFRDA's new categories.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/nps-msf-schemes-compared\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blogs\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"NPS MSF schemes compared: all 20 schemes, their equity limits and size\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/1finance.co.in\/\",\"name\":\"1 Finance\",\"description\":\"Our single focus, to get you to re-imagine your Personal Finance What does this mean ? 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