Zerodha’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nithin Kamath, recently posted on the social media platform X about a significant challenge facing the Indian equity market: the country’s lack of an advisory ecosystem. Kamath noted that while the number of unique investors is increasing, the number of Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) appears to be dwindling.
“One of the biggest challenges for the Indian markets is the lack of an advisory ecosystem. While the number of unique investors has grown from about 3 crore in 2020 to 10 crore today, the number of RIAs has barely grown. If anything, the number of RIAs seems to be decreasing,” said Nithin Kamath, the CEO of Zerodha Fund House.
Kamath emphasized the sharp increase in unique investors to 10 crore, up from 3 crore in 2020, while pointing out that the number of RIAs has not kept pace and is seemingly declining.
“We just have about 900 odd RIAs, and not all of them do holistic advisory,” Kamath remarked in his post on X. He further noted that the number of RIAs has decreased to less than half, resulting in only a few hundred investment advisors for the 10 crore investors in the country.
Despite having over 2.7 lakh mutual fund distributors in India, Kamath indicated that this is still insufficient for the growing number of investors. He contrasted this with the insurance sector, which has over 27 lakh insurance agents.
“As our markets continue to grow, the number of advisors has to grow exponentially to help new investors,” he stated in his post.