Is your money actually safe?
Yes, and not on trust. SEBI's structure puts your assets in your own name, under independent custody, with the manager kept at arm's length from your money.
The safeguards in four numbers.
Your assets never sit on the manager's books.
In a PMS the securities bought for you are held in a demat account opened in your own name, never pooled with other clients and never on the manager's balance sheet. A SEBI-registered custodian, separate from the manager, safekeeps the assets and settles every trade.
Because the people who decide what to buy are kept apart from the people who hold the assets, no single party can both trade and disappear with your holdings.
Six layers between you and a bad actor.
Every portfolio manager operates under the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2020; every AIF under the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012. The firm, its principal officer and its compliance officer are on the public register, with minimum net-worth, qualification and experience bars met before a licence is granted.
Draw the line cleanly.
- Misappropriation.Assets in your own demat, held by an independent custodian, can't be quietly siphoned off.
- Commingling. PMS accounts are segregated and held individually; your portfolio is never mixed into a common pot.
- Firm failure. If the manager shuts down, your holdings stay with the custodian or trustee, independent of its solvency.
- Hidden fees and conflicts. A written disclosure document and fee schedule are mandatory, not optional.
- Market risk. Equity and hybrid strategies can fall in value. Past performance does not predict future returns.
- Manager underperformance. A registered, audited manager can still pick poorly or lag its benchmark for years.
- Liquidity timing.AIFs can hold less liquid assets with defined lock-ins, so access isn't always immediate.
- Guaranteed outcomes.No regulation assures a return, and any “assured” pitch is a rule being broken.
Turn ‘trust me’ into ‘show me’.
| Step | What to check |
|---|---|
| 01 | Pull the SEBI registration number Ask for the firm's exact SEBI registration number, then verify it yourself on the SEBI register at sebi.gov.in: confirm the legal name, registration category (Portfolio Manager or AIF) and that the status reads active. A genuine manager volunteers this in seconds. |
| 02 | Confirm the demat is in your name and identify the custodian For a PMS, the demat and trading account must be opened in your own name. Ask which SEBI-registered custodian safekeeps the assets and who strikes the portfolio value. If anyone proposes holding securities in the firm's own account, stop there. |
| 03 | Request the disclosure document, fee schedule and a sample statement Read the SEBI disclosure document, the all-in fee schedule and a specimen of the periodic reporting you will receive. Vague answers or a refusal to put fees in writing is itself the answer. |
| 04 | For an AIF, map the full governance chain Confirm the trustee, custodian, valuer and auditor by name, and read the private placement memorandum, especially the lock-in and liquidity terms. A defined accountability hierarchy is the protection; an undefined one is the warning. |
| 05 | Check APMI membership and cross-reference independently A distributor introducing the product should hold APMI membership and a registration number. Then compare the manager against peers on an independent platform rather than relying on a single sales deck; the same evidence, side by side, is hard to dress up. |
Where we sit: PMS Sahi Hai is an APMI-registered distributor (APRN08358), not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser. We surface cited research and disclose our trail in writing; the final recommendation comes from a licensed adviser.
Structure guards custody, not the outcome.
The safeguards are genuinely strong against someone taking your money: segregated accounts, independent custody, annual audits and a manager whose authority is limited to transacting within an agreed mandate. Against the market falling, none of it helps.
So the real question isn't whether a manager is registered; every legitimate one is. It's whether the strategy suits you, and whether you can sit through its worst year.
Regulation guards the custody of your money. It will never guard the outcome.
So the question isn't whether a manager is registered; every legitimate one is. It's whether the strategy is right for you, and whether you can sit through its worst year. That part is on the evidence, not the licence.
The safety questions people actually ask.
Nyra checks the registration so you check the fit.
AI research on every SEBI-registered fund, scored on the same 0-10 basis, with every answer citing its source.
Keep reading.
See every manager's registration, fees and record in one place.
Educational content only, not investment advice. Verify any manager's registration, custodian and fee specifics against SEBI records and the disclosure document, and confirm suitability with a qualified adviser. Investments are subject to market risks.