RIA (Registered Investment Adviser) is a license issued by SEBI (the investments and market regulator in India), to offer advice on financial planning, savings, debt management and investments to clients. RIAs work on behalf of their clients and can only accept a pre-determined fee from their clients – they are not allowed to accept any commissions from the issuers of financial instruments. However, distributors of financial products (Mutual Funds Distributors) are paid commissions by AMCs / fund houses to sell their products, and hence represent the interests of the issuers of financial instruments.