NISM Series XXV-B Syllabus: Persons Associated with Investment Advice
All 6 chapters of the Persons Associated with Investment Advice workbook, and what each one covers.
NISM Series XXV-B is the exam for sales and other non-core staff of a registered investment adviser (RIA), a subset of those SEBI calls persons associated with investment advice. Its curriculum has six sessions, not chapters. The first four are investment knowledge: financial planning, how securities markets work, the main asset classes and the products built on them. The last two are the job itself: how to sell inside an advisory firm, and how to stay within the rules while doing it.
The exam went live on 1 June 2026, so the syllabus is new and NISM has not yet published a weightage per session. What NISM does publish is a session list with lettered learning points, and that is what this page follows.
You save ₹500
- Full-length mock tests
- Chapter-wise question bank
- AI study plan
One payment, no subscription · Valid for 1 month
All 6 sessions at a glance
Session titles as NISM's curriculum names them, with the learning points each one lists.
| Session | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1. Introduction to Personal Financial Planning and Financial Markets | What a financial plan is and the six-step planning process; risk profiling, risk tolerance vs risk capacity and what shapes a person's risk profile; what financial markets do, their types and functions; the role of regulators and investor protection |
| 2. Securities Markets & Basics of Investment | Securities, market structure, participants and terms; investment vs saving; types of investment risk, the risk-return relationship, compounding and the case for long-term investing; asset classes, asset allocation and portfolio rebalancing |
| 3. Financial Asset Classes | Equity: risk, return, market structure and terms; fixed income: government vs corporate debt, debt instruments and banking products, and their risks; derivatives: purpose, basic types, exchange-traded products and their regulation |
| 4. Financial Products | How products fit into a plan; mutual funds in depth (structure, categories, risk-return, investment modes, disclosures, basic evaluation tools); PMS, AIF and SIF and how they differ; retirement products; insurance products; combining products to meet investment and protection needs |
| 5. Sales Skills | Sales in an RIA setup and advisory sales vs product selling; client profiling and behavioural aspects; communication, presentation and relationship management; ethical negotiation and closing; crisis management, service continuity, CRM and technology tools |
| 6. Professionalism, Ethics, and Compliance | Day planning, time management and the 3P approach; professional development; the regulatory environment for investment advice in India; fiduciary duty, suitability and role boundaries in an RIA; ethics and compliance in routine work |
Sessions 1 and 2: planning and market basics
Session 1 opens with personal financial planning: what a sound plan contains and the six steps from goal setting to review. Risk profiling gets its own block. Learn the difference between risk tolerance (how much loss a client can stomach) and risk capacity (how much loss their finances can absorb), because the two are tested as separate ideas.
Session 2 is the investor's toolkit. It separates saving from investing, names the types of investment risk, and explains compounding and why time in the market matters. It then moves to asset allocation and rebalancing, the vocabulary you need when a client asks why their portfolio is being changed.
Sessions 3 and 4: asset classes and products
Session 3 takes each asset class in turn. Equity comes with market structure and terms. Fixed income covers the government vs corporate split, the common instruments and bank products, and the risks that go with them. Derivatives are kept to purpose, basic types and exchange-traded products, with a note on who regulates them. There is no derivative pricing on this paper.
Session 4 is the one closest to daily work. Mutual funds take the largest share: structure, categories, risk-return profile, lump sum vs SIP, disclosures and basic evaluation tools. Then it places PMS (portfolio management services), AIFs (alternative investment funds) and SIFs (specialised investment funds, SEBI's newer fund category) side by side so you can tell a client how they differ. Retirement and insurance products close the session, followed by how to combine products for one client.
Free account, this exam preselected.
Sessions 5 and 6: selling and conduct inside an RIA
Session 5 is what makes XXV-B different from every other NISM paper. It is about selling, but selling within an advisory relationship. The key distinction is advisory sales vs product selling: an RIA's sales staff bring clients to advice, they do not push products. The session covers client profiling, including behavioural traits, then communication, negotiation, closing, handling difficult clients and using CRM tools across the client lifecycle.
Session 6 sets the boundaries. It starts with personal effectiveness (day planning, the 3P approach, continuous learning), then moves to the rules: the regulatory environment for investment advice in India, the adviser's fiduciary duty, suitability, and exactly where a non-core staff member's role stops. Ethics and compliance in routine decisions finish the syllabus.
How XXV-B tests the syllabus
The paper is 50 MCQs of 1 mark each in 1 hour, with no negative marking, and you pass at 25 out of 50 (50%). Sessions 1 to 4 produce definition and comparison questions: which of these is risk capacity, which product has a lock-in, how does a SIF differ from a PMS. Sessions 5 and 6 produce situation questions: a client asks a sales associate which fund to buy, what should the associate do? The trap is answering as a seller. The correct answer usually routes the client to the adviser, because XXV-B staff are, in SEBI's words, not directly involved in investment advice.
FAQs
What is the syllabus for the NISM Series XXV-B exam?expand_more
Six sessions: Introduction to Personal Financial Planning and Financial Markets; Securities Markets & Basics of Investment; Financial Asset Classes; Financial Products; Sales Skills; and Professionalism, Ethics, and Compliance. NISM's curriculum page lists five or six lettered learning points under each.
How many chapters are there in NISM XXV-B?expand_more
NISM structures this exam as 6 sessions rather than numbered chapters. The exam page says the content is available free on NISM's YouTube channel.
What is the session-wise weightage for NISM 25 B?expand_more
NISM has not published one. The exam launched on 1 June 2026 and the curriculum page carries session names and learning points only. Treat any percentage per session as a guess.
Is the NISM XXV-B syllabus the same as XXV-A?expand_more
No. XXV-A is NISM's exam for persons associated with research services (sales and other non-core services), with its own curriculum. XXV-B is for the same kind of staff at a registered investment adviser, and its syllabus is financial planning, products and advisory sales conduct.
Does the XXV-B syllabus include numericals?expand_more
The curriculum lists concepts such as compounding, risk-return and basic mutual fund evaluation tools, so expect a few simple calculations from sessions 2 and 4. There is no bond maths or option pricing in the session list.
Access exam-specific mock tests directly from your Android device.Trusted by learners and rated 4.6★ on Google Play.