How We Are Paid.

You pay us no fee

Crestforge Wealth Private Limited does not charge investors any fee — no onboarding fee, no transaction fee, no annual fee and no exit fee. There is no invoice at any stage of the relationship.

We are remunerated by the asset management companies and product manufacturers whose products we distribute. That remuneration is paid out of the product, not billed to you separately.

Where the money actually comes from

Every mutual fund scheme charges a Total Expense Ratio, which SEBI caps by scheme category and size. The TER covers the fund manager's fee, the registrar, the custodian, audit and other running costs — and, in a regular plan, the trail commission paid to the distributor.

The TER is charged within the scheme and is already reflected in the NAV you see. It is not deducted from your bank account and it does not appear as a line item on your statement.

Trail only — no upfront commission

Since October 2018 SEBI has required the mutual fund industry to operate on a full trail model. Upfront commission on mutual fund sales is not permitted.

In practical terms this means we earn nothing at the moment you invest. We earn a small percentage each year on the value of the investment for as long as you stay invested. If you redeem, the commission stops.

We regard this as the right structure. It removes the incentive to churn a portfolio, and it ties what we earn to how long your investment survives rather than to how often it moves.

What the rates look like

Trail rates are set by each asset management company for each scheme and are revised from time to time. They vary by fund house and by category, and the spread within a category can be wide.

We publish the trail rates we actually receive, fund house by fund house, once the figures for a full quarter are settled. Until that table is up, the position is simply this: ask us what we will be paid on any scheme you are considering, and we will tell you the rate before you invest rather than after.

How to verify what we earned

You do not have to take our word for any of this. The Consolidated Account Statement sent to you by the registrars discloses the total commission paid to your distributor across all your folios for the period covered.

Scheme information documents and the monthly disclosures on each AMC's website set out the expense ratios of the regular and direct plans side by side. The difference between the two is, broadly, what distribution costs.

Products other than mutual funds

• Insurance — life, health and general insurance pay commission as a percentage of premium, set by the insurer within IRDAI limits. Rates differ substantially between product types and between the first year and renewal years.
• Bonds and fixed income products — remuneration is usually a distribution fee paid by the issuer or arranger.
• AIF and PMS — distributors are remunerated on a trail basis in line with SEBI's requirements for those products.

For any of these, ask us what we will be paid before you sign. We will tell you.

Conflicts, and what we do about them

Any commission-based model carries an inherent conflict: schemes that pay more are, other things being equal, more attractive to the distributor. We manage it in three ways.

• We work from the whole empanelled universe, not a shortlist chosen by payout.
• We do not churn. Trail commission rewards holding, and switching a client between similar schemes for its own sake is something we do not do.
• We will disclose the trail rate on any scheme whenever you ask, before the transaction rather than after it.

If you would rather avoid distribution cost altogether, direct plans are available to you and we will say so plainly. What you cannot do is get the service and avoid the cost.

A standing reminder

Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Read all scheme related documents carefully. Crestforge Wealth Private Limited is an AMFI registered mutual fund distributor (ARN 333310, EUIN E632935) and is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser. We distribute products; we do not provide investment advice for a fee.

Please make every payment in favour of the scheme or the insurer. Never issue a cheque, transfer or UPI payment in favour of a distributor or an individual.