How much fee can I charge an individual or HUF client?
In force
For individual and HUF clients, the maximum you can charge is ₹1,51,000 per family, per annum — across all research services combined, taken together at the family/group level, not per individual client.
This cap does not apply to non-individual clients, institutional investors/QIBs, or accredited investors — for them you may charge as commercially agreed.
The cap also falls away for accredited investors. For them the fee limit, the payment modes, the refund rule, the advance limit and the breakage-fee bar are all replaced by whatever you agree bilaterally.
Statutory charges (GST etc.) sit outside this cap — they're not counted toward the ₹1.51 lakh.
The cap is revised every 3 years based on the Cost Inflation Index, in consultation with RAASB.
You can take fees in advance for at most one quarter — no bigger lump-sum advances. If a client exits early, you must give a pro-rata refund, and you cannot charge any 'breakage fee' for early termination.
What SEBI says, word for word
Guidelines for RAs“the maximum fee that may be charged by a research analyst from an individual or HUF client shall be ₹1,51,000 per annum per family... revised once in every 3 years based on the Cost Inflation Index... after consultation with RAASB.”Source: SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2025/004, dated January 8, 2025 Open document ↗
MITC (Standardised Terms)“The maximum fee that may be charged by [the RA] is ₹1.51 lakhs per annum per family of client... The fee limit does not cover statutory charges and does not apply to non-individual clients or accredited investors.”Source: SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD/P/CIR/2025/20, dated February 17, 2025 (MITC Annexure) Open document ↗
Informal Guidance“the annual fee cap of ₹1,51,000 per family... is applicable to all individual and Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) clients, without exception... RAs were required to align with these provisions by 30 June 2025”Source: SEBI Informal Guidance No. SEBI/HO/MIRSD-POD/P/OW/2025/25279/1, dated September 24, 2025 Open document ↗