How we are paid
You do not pay us a fee. Someone else does, and you should know who, how much, and what that means for the advice you get.
We are paid commission by the companies whose products we distribute — Asset Management Companies, deposit and bond issuers, and, in the case of insurance, the insurer paying our associate Secureline.
You pay us nothing directly. There is no advisory fee, no planning fee, no review fee and no account maintenance fee.
That creates a conflict of interest, because different products pay differently. The rest of this page is about that conflict and what we do to manage it.
Product by product
Product | Who pays us | How it works |
Mutual funds | The Asset Management Company | Trail commission only, paid as a percentage of the value of your investment for as long as you stay invested. It is paid out of the scheme’s expense ratio, which is disclosed in the scheme documents. We receive nothing extra for switching you between schemes. |
Demat and trading | Aditya Birla Money Limited | A share of the brokerage generated on your account, under our Authorised Person agreement. We do not benefit from you trading more often beyond that share — and we will say so if we think you are trading too much. |
Corporate FDs and bonds | The issuing company | A one-time distribution commission on the amount placed, and in some cases on renewal. |
AIFs | The fund | A distribution commission as set out in the fund’s offer document. |
PMS | The Portfolio Manager | A distribution commission as disclosed by the respective portfolio manager. |
Insurance | The insurer, to Secureline | HAWMS Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. receives no insurance commission. Commission is paid by the insurer to Secureline Assurance IMF Pvt. Ltd., our associate and the IRDAI-registered licence holder. |
Capital raising referrals | The registered intermediary, sometimes | Where we receive a referral fee, we disclose it to you in writing before you engage them. |
Where the conflict actually is
Trail commission rates differ between schemes and between fund houses. Equity schemes generally pay more than debt schemes, and debt schemes generally pay more than liquid funds. That means there is always a version of us that would be better off recommending the higher-paying option.
We would rather say that out loud than pretend it is not true. What we do about it:
- We are empanelled with 20 Asset Management Companies, so we are never limited to the ones paying most
- We write down the reasoning for a scheme selection, so it can be checked later against the outcome
- We will tell you when a lower-commission product is the right answer — a liquid fund for an emergency corpus, a term policy rather than an endowment plan
- We do not churn portfolios. Switching you between schemes does not pay us more, and doing it without reason would be a breach of the AMFI Code of Conduct
- If you ask what we earn on a specific recommendation, we will tell you
What we are not
We are not fee-only advisers. A SEBI-registered Investment Adviser charges you a fee and takes no product commission, which removes this conflict entirely. If that is what you want, we will say so and you should approach one. We are a distributor, and our model is commission-based.
Where to check for yourself
- Every mutual fund scheme’s expense ratio and commission structure is disclosed by the AMC and available on its website and in the scheme documents
- AMFI publishes distributor commission disclosures at www.amfiindia.com
- Your consolidated account statement from CAMS or KFin shows the commission attributable to your investments
- Ask us directly — grievance@hawms.in or +91 8281881253
HAWMS Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN: 305902) and is not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser. Any guidance we provide is incidental to our distribution activity and we do not charge an advisory fee. Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.
