How to choose — without the usual mistakes.

Ask for at least five years of Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWRR), and insist the window spans real stress — the March 2020 COVID crash and the 2022 rate-hike correction. TWRR strips out the timing and size of cash flows, so it reflects the manager's skill rather than when money happened to arrive. Prefer rolling returns against an appropriate benchmark over a single point-to-point CAGR.

Maximum drawdown is the deepest peak-to-trough fall the portfolio has suffered — it tells you what you would have had to sit through to earn the returns shown. Pair it with how long the strategy took to claw back. A manager who compounds steadily with a shallower drawdown is often a better fit for serious capital than one with a higher headline return and brutal declines you may not stomach.

Check the single-stock weight limit, the share of the book in the top-10 holdings, and any sector caps. High-conviction portfolios can reward you, but they also concentrate your outcome in a handful of positions — and a turnover figure worth asking about, because very high churn lifts brokerage and tax drag and can signal a less settled process.

Many Indian PMS strategies are built around one fund manager, which concentrates outcome risk in one person. Ask how long the current lead has actually run this strategy, how deep the research bench is, and whether there is a documented succession plan if the key person leaves. The record you're shown may have been authored by someone who has since moved on.

The headline fixed fee is rarely the whole bill. Under SEBI no upfront fee is allowed and exit loads are capped at 3% / 2% / 1% across years one to three, nil thereafter. On top of the fixed fee (up to ~2.5%) sit a performance fee (typically 10–20% above a hurdle, with a high-water mark), operating expenses capped at 0.50% of average AUM, 18% GST, plus brokerage and custodian charges at actuals. Ask the manager to model all of it into one all-in annual cost on your likely portfolio size.

The benchmark must match the stated strategy: a focused mid-cap approach measured against a large-cap index will look better than it deserves. Confirm the strategy still invests the way its record was built — style drift is quiet — and sanity-check AUM fit, because a small-cap strategy that grew too big can no longer trade the names that made its history. Finally, read the exit terms: notice period, how fast the book is liquidated or transferred, and where the exit load sits.