Everybody wants to invest, but not everyone knows how. There just aren’t many who can point investors in the right direction.

Registered investment advisors, or RIAs—either individuals or corporates licensed by the stock-market regulator—are an endangered species in India. While the country had about 192 million demat accounts as of March 2025, there were only about 941 advisors. That’s one advisor for over 200,000 investors. Pressure much?

You’d think the problem goes away if there were more Sebi-registered advisors. If only. In fact, the number of registered advisors in India has been declining over the past few years. Just in 2020, there were over 1,500 of them. The drop was largely attributable to the regulator.

While Sebi had increasingly put checks in place, and taken actionFinancial Express Unregistered advisors are a ‘menace’: SEBI member against unregistered advisorsThe Ken Playing whack-a-mole with Indore’s stock market scamsters, it also made life difficult for the ones abiding by the rules. There were stringent regulationsMintSebi tightens regime for RIAs, restricts use of names like IFA, wealth adviser regarding their minimum net worth, experience, even qualification standards. Sure, Sebi tried easingTimes Of IndiaSebi issues guideline for research analysts, investment advisers the rules last year, but that’s not helping—at least not yet.

The blame lies with the compliance burden and the associated costs. Like when RIAs have to seek permission and pay a supervisory body before running ads or even sending out emails and messages to their clients. This restricts their ability to take on clients outside the high-wealth bracket. Servicing every retail investor simply doesn’t make economic sense to most registered advisors.

“Most RIAs provide fee-based advisory services to high net-worth clients only, because once you achieve a certain stage of wealth, you begin to realise the value of advice,” said a senior executive working with Scripbox, a digital wealth-management platform.

That leaves other investors with two options: either jump into the deep end blind or approach someone who’d offer any advice, even if it comes with a risk of bias.