How to Check a SEBI-Registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst in Two Minutes

“I’m a SEBI-registered investment adviser” is a claim, not a credential, until you have checked it yourself. Anyone who sells stock tips on Telegram, or charges a fee for a portfolio plan, can put those words in a bio. Checking takes about two minutes on SEBI’s own website, and it costs nothing. This guide shows where to look, what a real entry contains, and what to do if the person you are paying is not on the list.

SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst: know which one you need

SEBI registers investment advisers (IAs) and research analysts (RAs) as separate categories, and keeps a separate public list for each. Broadly, an investment adviser is paid to advise you on your money and investments; a research analyst produces research reports and recommendations on securities. A mutual fund distributor is something else again: distributors are registered with AMFI and identified by an ARN.

The size of each list, as SEBI’s pages showed on 11 October 2026 (both note “Registered intermediaries as on date Oct 10, 2026”):

The “INA” and “INH” prefixes are what we saw on every entry on the first pages of each list; they are a quick sanity check, not a rule we found stated by SEBI.

How to check, step by step

1. Ask the person for their full registered name and their SEBI registration number. A genuine adviser will give both without hesitation.
2. Open SEBI’s website, go to Intermediaries, then Recognised Intermediaries, and pick Investment Adviser or Research Analyst.
3. Search by name, trade name or registration number. You can also search by email, contact person or location.
4. Match every field: name, registration number, email, telephone and address. Each entry also shows a “Validity” line, such as a start date and “Perpetual”.
5. Check that the contact details you have been given match. A real number with a different phone or email is a common trick.

For a mutual fund distributor, use AMFI’s “Locate a Mutual Fund Distributor” page and search by name or ARN. The same page links to lists of ARNs that have been suspended or terminated, and to reported cases of mis-selling.

Questions to ask before you pay

Once the registration checks out, a few plain questions tell you a lot about how the adviser works. None of these is a legal test; they are what a careful client asks.

• What exactly am I paying for? A one-time plan, an ongoing review, or stock recommendations? Get it in writing.
• How is the fee charged, and to whom? The invoice should be in the registered name you found on SEBI’s list.
• Do you earn anything from the products you recommend? An honest answer either way helps you judge the advice.
• Will you put the recommendation and its reasons in writing? A vague voice note is not advice you can hold anyone to.
• How do I cancel, and is any fee refunded? Know the exit before you sign up.

If any answer is “don’t worry about that”, treat it as a warning sign.

Red flags the list will not show you

A registration number proves registration, not honesty. Watch for these even when the name checks out:

• Payment to a personal account. If an “adviser” asks you to pay an individual’s UPI ID or a third party, stop and ask why.
• Promised or fixed returns on shares. No one can promise this on market investments.
• “Live” trading shown on social media. SEBI issued a caution to investors on 17 August 2026 about live trading strategies displayed on social media platforms (press release 58/2026).
• Pressure to move fast, share an OTP, or hand over trading login details.
• A letter “from SEBI” demanding a fee. SEBI revamped its Document Number Verification System on 1 October, so you can check whether a SEBI letter is genuine; we explained it in our post on SEBI’s investor messages and letter check.

If the adviser is not on the list

Stop paying. Do not send more money to “release” profits. Save the chats, payment receipts and the profile link. Then:

• If you lost money through a bank or UPI transfer, tell your bank at once and report it at cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930. Our wrong-account transfer guide covers what your bank can and cannot reverse.
• If the person is a SEBI-registered intermediary and you have a grievance, use SEBI’s SCORES portal. Its home page says grievances sent by email to SEBI addresses “will not be attended to” and should be lodged on the portal.

A two-minute check, worked through

Say an Instagram account offers a ₹4,999 “portfolio review”. The bio says “SEBI Reg. Investment Adviser”. You ask for the number and get “INA0000XXXXX” and a name. On SEBI’s Investment Adviser list, you search the number. Three outcomes are possible:

This takes less time than reading the account’s highlights. Our earlier piece on whether to stop a SIP in a falling market is a reminder that most decisions do not need a paid tip at all.

A few common questions:

FAQs

How do I check if someone is a SEBI-registered investment adviser?

Search their name or registration number on SEBI’s Recognised Intermediaries list for Investment Advisers, and match every contact detail.

Is a research analyst the same as an adviser?

No. They are separate SEBI categories with separate lists.

Are mutual fund distributors on SEBI’s list?

Distributors are found on AMFI’s distributor search, by name or ARN.

Where do I complain about a registered intermediary?

On SEBI’s SCORES portal, not by email.

Takeaway: before paying anyone for advice, find their registration number on SEBI’s list yourself and pay only the registered entity; a SEBI-registered investment adviser will not mind you checking.