Vetted Wealth · Choosing an Advisor

Where your money actually goes

Most financial loss in India is not from a bad fund. It is from money that went somewhere it should never have gone, or an asset nobody could prove you owned. Before you part with a rupee, trace four things. They take minutes to check and they are the difference between a poor return and a stolen one.

Choosing an advisor · about 5 minutes

Four questions that trace any money flow

Who receives your money, who holds the asset, in whose name it sits, and what document proves you own it. Get clean answers to all four before you invest.

How a clean flow looks

In a properly run product, your money never sits in any individual's pocket, and the asset is held in your own name with a regulated custodian:

Mutual funds: Money goes to the fund company through a regulated payment route, the units are held in your name with the registrar or in your demat account, and your statement proves it.
Stocks and a broker: Shares sit in a demat account in your own name. The broker executes, but the holding is yours, shown in your demat statement.
PMS: The securities are held in a demat account in your name, with the manager operating under a power of attorney, not in the manager's own account.
Insurance: The premium goes to the IRDAI-registered insurer, and the policy document in your name is the proof.

How an unsafe flow looks

The danger is rarely subtle once you look for it. Be very wary when:

You are asked to transfer money to an individual's personal account, rather than to a regulated entity.
The asset is held in someone else's name, or in a pooled account you cannot see into.
You are asked to share an OTP, password, or login, or to give someone informal authority to transact for you.
You receive no independent statement proving what you own, only the seller's own assurance.

Any one of these turns a market risk you chose into a counterparty risk you did not. Advice can come in. Money should only ever move out by your own hand.

What to check

Insist that money goes to a regulated entity, never an individual, and that the asset is held in your own name.
Make sure you receive an independent statement, a consolidated account statement, a demat holding, or a policy document, that proves ownership without relying on the seller.
Never share an OTP or password, and confirm the professional is who they claim on the official register.

Choose your risk on purpose. Never inherit one because of where the money went.

A fund can fall, and that is a risk you accepted. Money handed to the wrong account, or an asset nobody can prove is yours, is a different thing entirely. Four questions, asked before you invest, keep the two apart.

This guide is educational and general, not advice on any specific arrangement. The custody and ownership checks here are a baseline of safety, not a guarantee, and any genuine doubt is reason to stop and verify before you invest.

Vetted Wealth