Planning to Invest in SIF? Here's How to Find the Right Scheme for You.
SIFs give retail investors access to hedge-fund-style strategies from as little as ₹10 lakh. Foliyo's SEBI-registered RIA team will evaluate whether a SIF belongs in your portfolio.
SIF occupies a genuinely new space. It's not a replacement for your existing mutual fund SIPs — it's an addition for investors ready to go beyond long-only strategies, with a corpus suitable for the ₹10L minimum. A fee-only RIA will tell you where it fits relative to what you already hold.
— The basics
What exactly is a Specialised Investment Fund?
SIF fills the gap between traditional mutual funds and PMS. Like a mutual fund, a SIF is managed by an AMC, pools money from investors and publishes NAVs.
The difference is what the manager is allowed to do. Unlike a traditional mutual fund, a SIF manager can use more sophisticated strategies including long-short positioning, sector rotation, and tactical asset allocation. These were previously associated with PMS or AIF investors, where the minimum ticket was much higher.
The minimum investment is ₹10 lakh per investor. That is meaningfully lower than PMS at ₹50 lakh and AIF at ₹1 crore.
SIF was launched in 2025 but by February 2026, total SIF AUM had already crossed ₹9,700 crore — a sign of strong early institutional and HNI interest. But being new also means limited track records. A fee-only advisor will help you calibrate how much weight to give to past data.
— The conflict of interest
Whose interests does your SIF distributor put first?
SIF Distributor / Relationship Manager
✕
Earns Product Commission
Earns upfront and trail commissions from the AMC for distributing SIF strategies.
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Incentivised by Distribution Margin
Incentivised to recommend whichever SIF pays the highest distribution margin — not the best fit for you.
✕
No Fiduciary Obligation
No legal obligation to act in your interest — they are distributors, not advisors.
✕
Sale Comes First
Has no reason to tell you a SIF is wrong for your situation if it costs them the sale.
Foliyo SEBI-Registered RIA (INA000023454)
✓
Paid Only by You
Paid only by you — a transparent fixed fee.
✓
Zero Product Commission
Zero commission from any AMC, SIF house, or product manufacturer.
✓
Legally Bound to Your Interest
Legally bound by SEBI RIA regulations to act in your best interest.
✓
Honest No Is Allowed
Will tell you honestly if SIF is wrong for your corpus or risk profile — including recommending you stay with mutual funds if that's the right answer.
— What You Get
Your RIA Advisor is your Family's Chief Financial Officer.
Advice, allocation, and execution across every dimension of your wealth.
Yearly Retainer · No Commissions · One Annual Fee
✓
SIF Strategy SelectionAdvice on the right Specialised Investment Fund strategy for you.
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Investment AdviceMutual Funds, Stocks & Bonds alongside your SIF portfolio.
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Market-Signal RebalancingPortfolio adjustments based on market conditions and your goals.
✓
PMS & AIF AccessAlternatives for further portfolio sophistication alongside SIF.
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US & Global Market InvestingInternational exposure to complement your SIF portfolio.
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Pre-IPO & Unlisted StocksCurated access to pre-IPO companies before they list.
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Family Tax FilingITR for your family, aligned with SIF's equity fund tax treatment.
✓
Active Wealth MonitoringYear-round oversight of your complete financial picture.
— The process
Get the right SIF advice in four simple steps.
01
Share Your Profile
Tell us your corpus, risk appetite, investment horizon, existing mutual fund portfolio, and what you know (or don't know) about SIFs.
02
Institutional Analysis
Foliyo's SEBI RIA team analyzes your situation and prepares your customized allocation strategy across SIF, PMS, or direct equities.
03
Free Discovery Call
A free 30-minute call with Foliyo's advisory team. We'll assess whether SIF belongs in your portfolio, which strategy types are appropriate, and answer every question you have about how SIF works. No commitment.
04
Invest with Clarity
If you decide to proceed, your advisor helps you evaluate specific SIF strategies from AMCs, understand the offer documents, and make a well-reasoned decision — all for a transparent fixed advisory fee.
— Direct Advisory
Direct, fiduciary advice from Foliyo's SEBI RIA team.
Sachin Kabra
Co-founder, Foliyo
Advisory DeskFoliyo Direct RIA
Backgroundex-Director HDFC Wealth
Model100% Fee-Only
SEBI RegINA000023454
"SIF is genuinely new with limited historical track records. Most investors considering SIFs are actually better served by optimizing their core direct mutual fund portfolio first. We help you evaluate whether hedge-fund strategies truly add value to your net worth."
SIF Strategy SelectionMutual Fund OptimizationWealth PlanningDirect Plans OnlyFiduciary Standard
I was ready to put ₹15L into an equity long-short SIF my colleague had mentioned. My Foliyo advisor looked at my existing portfolio and pointed out I had no debt exposure at all. We went with a hybrid SIF instead — much better fit for where I actually am.
VN
Rahul Kashyap
Director of Product, Bangalore
Right strategy
hybrid SIF matched to actual risk profile
I had no idea SIF taxation was this different from PMS. My advisor ran the numbers — on ₹20L over 3 years with an active strategy, the tax difference was material. That one session paid for itself.
PS
Mukesh Burman
Director of Engineering, Hyderabad
Tax model
structural difference vs equivalent PMS
My advisor told me to wait. SIF is too new — less than a year of track record for most strategies. She put together a 6-month plan to watch how the strategies behaved in a market correction before committing. That kind of patience is what I was paying for.
AT
Vivek G
VP FMCG, Delhi NCR
6 months
phased evaluation before committing ₹10L
— The key concept
What does 'long-short' actually mean?
Traditional mutual funds are long-only. They buy stocks they believe will go up and hold them. If markets fall, they usually fall too, because they are mostly exposed to the market direction.
A long-short fund can do something more. It can simultaneously buy stocks it believes will rise and short-sell stocks it believes will fall, using derivatives. This lets the fund potentially profit in both rising and falling markets, or at minimum reduce the impact of a broad market decline.
Traditional Mutual Fund
StrategyLong-only
Market goes up✓ Fund benefits
Market goes down✕ Fund falls too
InstrumentsStocks, bonds
BenchmarkTracks the market
SIF Long-Short Strategy
StrategyLong + Short positions
Market goes up✓ Long positions benefit
Market goes down✓ Short positions can offset losses
InstrumentsStocks, bonds, derivatives
BenchmarkAims to outperform across cycles
SEBI capShort exposure capped at 25% of portfolio
Long-short doesn't mean risk-free. Short positions can also lose money if the shorted stock rises instead of falls. SIFs are higher-risk than standard equity mutual funds. Which SIF is appropriate — or whether any SIF belongs in your portfolio — is exactly the question a Foliyo advisor will answer with you.
— The tax advantage
Why SIF's tax structure is a significant edge over PMS.
In a PMS, the portfolio manager buys and sells stocks directly in your demat account. Every time the manager makes a trade, it creates a tax event for you — short-term or long-term capital gains tax, depending on the holding period. An actively managed PMS with high turnover can create meaningful tax drag across a year.
A SIF is structured like a mutual fund. The fund itself pays zero tax on internal trading under Section 10(23D) of the Income Tax Act. When the fund manager rebalances, exits a short position, or rotates between sectors, there is no tax event for you. You only pay capital gains tax when you redeem your SIF units — and even then, the rates follow mutual fund taxation, not PMS treatment.
PMS Tax Reality
Every tradeTax event for you
High turnoverCan mean a higher tax bill across the year
RebalancingCompounds your tax drag
Internal gainsYou pay tax even if you have not redeemed
SIF Tax Reality
Internal tradesZero tax at fund level under Section 10(23D)
RebalancingNo tax event for you
RedemptionYou pay capital gains tax only when you redeem
Equity SIFsLTCG 12.5% after 12 months | STCG 20%
Debt SIFsTaxed at your income slab rate
This structural difference matters most if you're comparing a high-turnover SIF strategy against a similarly active PMS. At scale, the compounding effect of deferred taxation can be substantial. Ask your Foliyo advisor to model this for your specific corpus and expected holding period.
— Know your options
SEBI defines seven SIF strategies. Here's what they mean.
SEBI allows SIFs to operate in three broad categories — Equity, Debt, and Hybrid — with seven specific subcategories. Most investors starting out will look at Equity or Hybrid strategies. Here's a plain-English breakdown.
Equity-Oriented SIF
Equity Long-Short Fund
Invests minimum 80% in equities. Fund manager can go long on stocks expected to rise and take short positions up to 25% via derivatives on stocks expected to fall. Suited to investors comfortable with equity-level risk who want more active risk management than a regular equity fund.
Higher Risk
Equity Ex-Top 100 Long-Short Fund
Focuses on stocks outside the top 100 companies by market capitalisation — typically mid and small caps. Uses the same long-short approach. Higher return potential, higher volatility.
Highest Risk
Sector Rotation Long-Short Fund
Dynamically shifts allocations across up to four sectors based on market and economic trends. Can be long sectors expected to outperform and short sectors expected to underperform.
Higher Risk
Debt-Oriented SIF
Debt Long-Short Fund
Invests in debt instruments such as bonds and government securities, and takes tactical short positions on interest rate movements or credit spreads. Suited to investors who want an alternative to standard debt funds with more active interest rate management.
Moderate Risk
Sectoral Debt Long-Short Fund
Focuses on debt from specific sectors like infrastructure or banking, with tactical short exposure across credit and duration. A niche strategy for investors with specific sector views.
Moderate Risk
Hybrid SIF
Active Asset Allocator Long-Short Fund
Dynamically shifts between equity and debt based on market conditions. Can go long or short in either asset class. The fund manager adjusts allocation actively rather than holding a fixed mix.
Moderate Risk
Hybrid Long-Short Fund
Maintains a mandatory minimum of 25% each in equity and debt, with long-short flexibility in both. The most popular category — accounting for ~76% of all SIF assets as of early 2026 — because the mandatory debt allocation provides a cushion during equity downturns.
Moderate Risk · Most popular
Not sure which of these seven strategies fits your situation? That's the exact conversation you'll have in your first 30 minutes with a Foliyo advisor. They'll map your risk tolerance, corpus, and goals to the right category — or tell you if none of them are appropriate yet.
— Built by Institutional Wealth Managers
Deep Wealth Management and Finance experience.
The Foliyo team has decades of experience in wealth management for HNIs and building technology products for the world.
Sachin Kabra
Mohan Gupta
Co-founders
Previously at
HDFC Private WealthMotilal OswalFacebookFlipkart
— Common Questions
Common questions about SIFs
Real questions from Indian investors, answered by SEBI-registered investment advisers.
SIF is genuinely new. Getting it right matters more than getting in fast. Foliyo's SEBI-registered RIA team will evaluate whether an SIF belongs in your portfolio — and if so, which strategy and which AMC. The intro call is free. You talk to our team within 24 hours. There is no commitment.
Under ₹10L₹10L – ₹25L₹25L – ₹50L₹50L – ₹1Cr₹1Cr – ₹3Cr₹3Cr+
Step 3 of 5
Who currently manages your investments?
Bank RMMutual Fund DistributorI manage it myselfFee-only advisorInsurance agentNobody yet
Step 4 of 5
What confuses you most about your finances right now?
Whether I'm investing enoughHow to handle my ESOPsTax on my income / investmentsWhether my advisor is right for meHow to plan for retirementEstate / succession planningI don't know what I don't knowHow SIF works and whether it suits meSIF vs PMS vs Mutual Fund — what's the difference?
Step 5 of 5
Almost there — how do we reach you?
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Your consultation request has been confirmed. Foliyo's SEBI RIA team (INA000023454) will reach out within 24 hours to schedule your session. Check your inbox — we'll never spam you or share your details.
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