Investor Protection

How to Verify Whether a Financial Advisor Is SEBI Registered, and Why It Matters

June 13, 2026 · Rahul Rajgopal · 4 min read

Anyone can call themselves a financial expert. Far fewer are actually authorised to give investment advice for a fee in India, and the difference is one you can check in a few minutes. With financial scams and unregulated advice spreading fast, especially through social media and messaging apps, verifying who you are dealing with is one of the most useful habits an investor can build.

What SEBI registration means

In India, anyone offering investment advice for a fee is required to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India as a Registered Investment Adviser, or RIA. Registration means the person or firm has met eligibility, qualification and compliance requirements, is subject to a code of conduct, and can be held accountable by the regulator. It is not a guarantee of good returns, but it is a baseline of legitimacy and recourse that an unregistered tipster simply does not offer.

Registered advisers also hold membership of an administration body known as BASL, and a genuine adviser will display both their SEBI registration number and their BASL membership number on their material.

How to check

The straightforward route is to look the adviser up on SEBI’s own website, which publishes a list of registered investment advisers that you can search. Match the name, the registration number, and the validity. A real adviser will give you their registration number without hesitation, because it is meant to be public. If someone is reluctant to share it, or it does not match the records, that tells you what you need to know.

The warning signs

A few signals reliably separate the regulated from the risky. Be cautious of anyone who guarantees returns or promises to beat the market, because no honest adviser can do that and no regulator permits the claim. Be cautious of pressure to act immediately, of advice that always ends in a specific product to buy, and of stock tips delivered through anonymous groups. Genuine advice is rarely urgent, rarely anonymous, and rarely framed as a sure thing.

Why it is worth the two minutes

The cost of getting this wrong is not theoretical. Unregistered advice and tip scams cost ordinary investors real money every year. Checking a registration number is the financial equivalent of confirming a doctor’s qualification before a procedure. It takes a couple of minutes, it is entirely within your control, and it filters out a large share of the people you should never have been listening to in the first place.

Rahul Rajgopal Wealth Advisor · SEBI Registration No. INA000021933 · BASL Membership: 2446
Registration granted by SEBI and membership of BASL do not guarantee performance of the intermediary or provide any assurance of returns to investors. Investment in securities market are subject to market risks. This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalised investment advice. Read all scheme related documents carefully before investing.