safety
Registered and segregated, or not at all
The rule
Deal only through SEBI-registered intermediaries that keep your money and shares segregated - that is where recourse exists.
Where it flips
An unregistered channel can look slick and confident, so registration feels like a formality. Where it misleads: you judge a channel by its returns, not its status. The fix: verify SEBI registration and client-money segregation before you pay, because that is what makes recourse possible.
Your protection is built before anything goes wrong: a registered intermediary, client funds and securities kept separate from the firm's own, and a complaint route like SCORES or ODR. An unregistered tip channel or platform leaves almost no regulated record to complain against. So the reader checks registration and segregation first, and reads returns last.
A worked example
A loss follows a paid tip from an unregistered channel with no advisory agreement and no risk disclosure. There is nothing registered to file against on SCORES. Had the reader used a SEBI-registered adviser, a real recourse trail would exist.
How to spot it
- ·intermediary not verified on the SEBI register
- ·client money not kept segregated from the firm
- ·no advisory agreement or risk disclosure given
- ·no SCORES or ODR route if something goes wrong
Investor-protection principle · SEBI registration, segregation and SCORES