NISM Series XXI-A Syllabus: Portfolio Management Services (PMS) Distributors
All 12 chapters of the Portfolio Management Services (PMS) Distributors workbook, and what each one covers.
The NISM Series XXI-A workbook has 12 chapters. The first six are investment foundations: markets, equity, bonds, derivatives and pooled products. The next four are the PMS job itself: what a portfolio manager does, how a client is onboarded and charged, how a portfolio is built and how performance is measured. The last two cover tax and regulation.
NISM does not publish a weightage for any XXI-A chapter. Any site that shows a percentage per chapter has made it up. What NISM does publish is the curriculum and a list of test objectives, and that is what the table below follows.
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All 12 chapters at a glance
Chapter titles as NISM's curriculum names them, with the topics each one lists.
| Chapter | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1. Investments | Investment vs speculation, investment objectives, required rate of return, types of risk, asset types, and the channels for investing (direct, mutual funds, PMS, AIFs) |
| 2. Introduction to Securities Markets | Primary market issue types (IPO, FPO, rights, QIP, OFS), secondary market trading and settlement, and the role of exchanges, depositories, custodians and other participants |
| 3. Investing in Stocks | Equity risk and diversification, top-down vs bottom-up research, the EIC approach, DCF and asset-based valuation, P/E, PEG, P/BV, EV/EBITDA multiples, technical analysis |
| 4. Investing in Fixed Income Securities | Bond features, bonds with options, credit safety, bond valuation, yield measures, interest rate risk, Macaulay and modified duration |
| 5. Derivatives | Forwards, futures, options and swaps, commodity and currency derivatives, margins and settlement, and how PMS portfolios may use derivatives |
| 6. Collective Investment Vehicles | Mutual funds, REITs, InvITs and AIFs: legal structure and types |
| 7. Role of Portfolio Managers | Discretionary, non-discretionary and advisory services, organisation of a PMS, a portfolio manager's responsibilities, custodian, records, audit and compliance officer |
| 8. Operational Aspects of Portfolio Managers | Who can invest, disclosures to prospective clients, onboarding (disclosure document, KYC, agreement, MITC, direct onboarding), liability on default, grievances, costs and fees, performance reporting |
| 9. Portfolio Management Process | Asset allocation and correlation, the steps of the process, investment policy statement, strategic vs tactical allocation, rebalancing |
| 10. Performance Measurement and Evaluation of Portfolio Managers | Return measures (holding period return, TWRR, XIRR), risk measures, Sharpe and Treynor ratios, benchmarking, attribution, valuation, due diligence on a portfolio manager |
| 11. Taxation | Investor categories, tax treatment by asset class, whether PMS fees are deductible, tax reporting, the Portfolio Investment Scheme for NRIs |
| 12. Regulatory, Governance and Ethical Aspects of Portfolio Managers | PMLA 2002, SEBI insider trading and PFUTP regulations, SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations 2020, the code of conduct for PMS distributors, the Investor Charter |
Chapters 1 to 6: the foundation block
If you hold Series V-A or have sold mutual funds for a few years, much of chapters 1, 2 and 6 will be familiar. Chapters 3 and 4 are different: they expect you to work numbers. Expect to value a stock on a multiple, compare yields, or say which bond's price moves more when rates rise using duration.
Chapter 5 ends with a section on derivatives inside PMS portfolios, which links the theory back to what a portfolio manager is allowed to do with a client's money.
Chapters 7 to 10: the PMS core
This is the material a relationship manager uses every week. Chapter 7 separates the three service types: in a discretionary account the manager decides, in a non-discretionary account the client approves each decision, and in advisory the client executes. Chapter 8 walks the client from first meeting to first quarterly report: the ₹50 lakh minimum, the disclosure document, the agreement, fees, exit loads and complaints.
Chapter 9 covers how a portfolio is planned, and chapter 10 how it is judged. Chapter 10 carries most of the calculations on this paper: time-weighted vs money-weighted returns, Sharpe and Treynor ratios, and how to compare a manager with a benchmark.
Free account, this exam preselected.
Chapters 11 and 12: tax and regulation
Chapter 11 explains that a PMS client is taxed as if they held the securities directly, then covers NRIs and the Portfolio Investment Scheme. Chapter 12 is the rulebook: the PMS regulations, anti-money-laundering duties, insider trading and unfair trade practice rules, and the distributor's own code of conduct.
SEBI has changed PMS rules several times since 2020, and the master circular for portfolio managers was reissued in July 2025. Learn chapters 8 and 12 from the current rules, and treat any figure from older notes as something to check before you rely on it.
How XXI-A tests the syllabus
The paper is 100 single MCQs of 1 mark each, with 0.10 marks deducted for a wrong answer. Foundation chapters produce definition and calculation questions. PMS chapters produce scenario questions: a client's ₹50 lakh portfolio falls to ₹46 lakh in a market dip, must they top up? (No.) The common trap is answering from mutual fund rules, which differ from PMS rules on minimum investment, fees and who owns the securities.
FAQs
How many chapters are there in NISM Series XXI-A?expand_more
12, from Investments (chapter 1) to Regulatory, Governance and Ethical Aspects of Portfolio Managers (chapter 12), as listed on NISM's curriculum page.
What is the chapter-wise weightage for NISM XXI-A?expand_more
NISM does not publish one. Any chapter percentage you see for XXI-A is not from NISM. Plan your study around the PMS chapters (7 to 10 and 12) because they are new to most candidates, not around an invented weightage.
Is the XXI-A syllabus the same as Series V-A?expand_more
No. There is some overlap in the investment basics and mutual fund material, but chapters 7 to 12 are specific to portfolio management services and the PMS regulations.
Does the XXI-A syllabus include numericals?expand_more
Yes. Expect calculations from chapters 3, 4 and 10: valuation multiples, bond yields and duration, returns such as TWRR and XIRR, and risk-adjusted ratios such as Sharpe and Treynor.