Change is a constant now in the financial services space. The financial community has had to adapt quickly to the fast-changing regulations.
Here is one change. Financial service providers had traditionally been selling products and bundling incidental ‘advice’ with them, for ‘free’. All good, but the problem was that the distributors’ were guided by the interests of the principal and of their own. While customers thought they was getting ‘true’ advice, they were being sold what the distributor wanted to sell. Apart from that, often, distributors did not have certification, hence their ability advise was constrained. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) introduced the Investment Advisor Regulations in 2013, so that customers had access fiduciary advice. These Registered Investment Advisors ( RIAs) were prohibited from getting commissions; their remuneration had to come directly from the customers. Today, there are over 530 RIAs.
