The illusory SIP

Is your SIP really an SIP? Sounds like an odd question to ask, one where even the meaning of the question is not clear. However, to a small fraction of my readers, this will make perfect sense, all because of a rather nasty surprise they have had recently. They thought they were investing through an SIP. All the outward appearances of SIP investing through an SIP were there - money was going out of their bank accounts every month, fund units were getting credited, the apps they were investing through were all saying SIP, and then it all stopped, much to their shock. Here's the story, and the reasons why I think you should ask some careful questions from the distributor/service which you are using to invest in funds. In the last couple of years, we have had a number of new online services that