iFAST Financial India has launched an investor education and search portal called Licensed Adviser (www.licensedadviser.in) for SEBI Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs).
The portal aims to help investors understand the importance of the services provided by RIAs. The portal will offer RIAs a marketing platform by listing their contact details based on the updated RIA list from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) website. RIAs can get their profiles created on the site free of cost.
The Indian financial advisory landscape is still evolving. There are different kinds of distributors like banks, national distributors, independent financial advisers, RIAs and insurance agents. Not many investors can discern the services offered by these intermediaries and how they are compensated.
Many investors are not aware of about the services offered by RIAs. The Licensed Adviser portal aims to bridge this gap by helping investors explore their offerings, qualifications and differentiation of RIAs through articles, and detailed profiles of RIAs with their personal stories, qualifications, service offerings and more.
SEBI Investment Adviser (IA) Regulations 2013 created a class of advisers who are held to a higher standard in terms of education, experience and certification in order to adhere to better processes & compliance, in the interest of investors.
While RIA regulations came into effect from 2013, not many distributors have registered as RIAs as the concept of fee-only advisory is still evolving in India. Currently, around 1,246 RIAs are registered with SEBI. Experts say that only about one third of them are practicing independent financial advisers. Many robo advisers selling direct plans operate as RIAs.
iFAST Financial India runs a B2B and B2C platform in India. It managed assets worth over Rs 2,800 crore in FY18-19.
