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Market Intelligence › Basic Terminologies
Pension, annuity, EPF, NPS, life cover, estate planning — the words of the long race
Published by The Retail Trader · AUG 08, 2026 · Retirement & Insurance
Trading is a short-term game; retirement planning is the exact opposite. This short journal covers the words that matter when your horizon is 20 years — pension, annuity, provident fund, insurance and estate planning. The source is NISM's Series XVII (Retirement Adviser) workbook and the modules around it.
Terms from A to Y:
• Anchoring — Investors hold on to some information that may no longer be relevant, and make their decisions.
• Annuity service provider — A life insurance company registered and regulated by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India and empanelled by PFRDA for providing annuity services to the subscribers of the National Pension System.
• Business Risk — Risk inherent in the operations of a company and caused by factors such as cost of raw materials, employee costs, introduction and position of competing products, marketing and distribution costs.
• Corporate Bond fund — Debt fund which invests atleast 80% of its portfolio in debt securities of the corporate sector.
• Department of Economic Affairs — Nodal agency of the Central Government to formulate and monitor India's macroeconomic policies, covering monetary and fiscal policy as well as the functioning of the capital market including stock exchanges.
• Digital gold — Mode of buying gold offered by sellers such as MMTC-PAMP India Pvt.
• Discretionary expenses — Last category of expenses and includes expenses on entertainment and recreation.
• Endowment Bias — Emotional bias in which people value an asset more when they hold rights to it than when they do.
• Endowment policies — Type of life insurance policies for a particular term.
• Estate planning — Process that determines how an individual wants to distribute his/her estate, which includes the rights and interest in the property owned, when he/she dies.
• Extension of PPF with contribution — A subscriber can extend the life of the PPF account indefinitely in blocks of 5 years at a time.
• Foundations and Endowments — A Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that donates funds and provides support to other organisations, for charitable purposes.
• IEPF Authority — Statutory body, constituted under the provisions of Companies Act.
• Inflation Indexed Bonds (IIB) — Category of government securities issued by the RBI which provides inflation protected returns to the investors.
• Insider trading — The dealing in securities by persons connected with a company having material information that is not available to the public.
• Insurance Companies and Pension Funds — Investments from both private and public sector pension funds have been a significant catalyst in the growth of AIFs, globally. Insurance companies are ideally positioned with large, long-term, corpuses to become AIF investors.
• Insurance policy — Promise from the Insurance Company to pay on the happening of certain risk that causes loss.
• Loan against PPF — A PPF account holder can take a loan against the balance from the beginning of 3rd financial year till the end of the 6th financial year from the date of account opening.
• Longevity risk — Risk that an individual will outlive their retirement assets, necessitating actions such as reducing the standard of living or seeking an alternate income to ensure that the retirement corpus of the individual will not be drained.
• Money Back Insurance Policies — Type of endowment policies that covers life and also assures the return of a certain percent of the sum assured as cash payment at regular intervals.
• National Pension System — National Pension System (NPS) is a pension cum investment scheme launched by Government of India to provide old age security to Citizens of India.
• National Pension System (NPS) — Pension cum investment scheme launched by Government of India to provide old age security to Citizens of India.
• NPS Corporate Sector Model — Customized version of NPS to suit various organizations.
• NPS Vatsalya — Contributory pension scheme designed for Indian minor citizens, specifically for children under 18 years of age.
• Pension Funds — A fund established to facilitate and organize the investment of the retirement funds contributed by the employees and employers.
• PPF account — Fixed-income, long term investment with a lock- in period of 15 years.
• PRAN — The Permanent Retirement Account Number allotted as a unique identification number to each subscriber.
• Rental incomes — Hedge against inflation, as rentals rise with inflation.
• Retirement Fund — An open ended retirement solution oriented scheme having a lock-in of 5 years or till retirement age (whichever is earlier).
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) — The agreement inter-alia providing for quality and performance parameters, specified by PFRDA, which the central recordkeeping agency is expected to execute with other intermediaries.
• Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) — Long-term strategy tailored to the specific goals and risk preferences of the investor.
• Target maturity funds — Category of open-ended debt funds that hold the debt securities in the portfolio to maturity and thus protect investors who hold the units to maturity.
• Tax-Adjusted Returns — Return earned after taxes have been paid by the investor.
• Term insurance — Pure risk protection product with no benefit on maturity.
• Time value of money — Idea that the point in time when a sum of money will be received or paid that determines its value.
• Total returns from an investment — Combination of periodic income received and the gains in the value of the investment over a period of time.
• Years in/during retirement — The years in/during retirement are the number of years from the beginning of retirement to the end of life for which an income has to be secured. This period cannot be defined precisely.
These words never show up on a chart, but a real portfolio stands on them. Ignoring these two things alongside your trading account is the most expensive shortcut there is.
The terms and definitions in this journal are taken from NISM's own certification workbooks, for educational reference only — this is not official NISM material, nor is it a buy or sell recommendation. SEBI changes regulations and limits from time to time, so for exams or compliance, NISM's latest workbook is always the authority.