Vested vs Rovia: which platform is right for your US stock situation?

Most comparisons between US investing platforms for Indians get lost in fee tables. The fee tables are almost identical — and that is precisely why they miss the point. The real question you need to answer before choosing between Vested and Rovia is not how much brokerage you will pay. It is whether you have RSUs.

If you do, the two platforms are doing fundamentally different jobs, and picking the wrong one will leave you managing equity in three different brokerage accounts with no consolidated view and manual tax reconciliation every April.

If you do not, the comparison is straightforward: Vested is a mature, well-documented platform for regular US stock investing from India. Rovia is not designed for you in the same way.

This article lays out both platforms factually and explains the decision.

Full disclosure: Vested.blog is the editorial publication of Rovia. We have applied the same factual lens to both platforms in this comparison. Where Vested has a feature advantage, we say so.

1. The real question: do you have RSUs?

Before reading any further, answer this:

Do you have unvested RSUs, already-vested shares, or equity grants sitting in a US brokerage account (E*Trade, Fidelity NetBenefits, Schwab, Morgan Stanley Shareworks or SPS) from a current or previous employer?

If yes — read the Rovia section carefully. The ACATS transfer capability is the deciding factor.

If no — Vested is likely the right starting point, especially for first-time US investors or anyone who wants structured Schedule FA assistance.

The rest of this article explains why.

2. What Vested is

Vested operates through VF Securities, Inc., a US-registered FINRA-member broker-dealer and SEC-registered investment adviser. It is not SEBI-registered. Indian investors use the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to send money to Vested — the same remittance route used for any foreign investment from India. There is nothing unusual or non-compliant about this structure; it is the standard path for direct US equity investing from India.

Clearing happens through DriveWealth LLC, a FINRA-member US broker-dealer. DriveWealth carries SIPC coverage up to $500,000 per customer on eligible securities. Your securities are held at DriveWealth, not at Vested directly.

Fees and structure:

• Brokerage: 0.25% per trade
• FX markup: approximately 75–100 paise above the interbank rate
• Fractional shares: yes, with a $1 minimum investment
• Minimum account: no hard minimum

LRS and TCS: Remittances through Vested follow standard LRS mechanics. TCS (Tax Collected at Source) applies at 0% on the first ₹10 lakh remitted per financial year, and at 20% on amounts above ₹10 lakh. This TCS is creditable against your final income tax liability and is not an extra cost — it is a prepayment collected at the time of remittance.

The Schedule FA helper: Vested provides a Schedule FA helper tool that pre-fills Schedule FA (the foreign asset disclosure in the ITR) with your Vested account data — account details, holding values as of December 31, and income earned. This is useful for investors doing their own ITR-2 filing.

What Vested does not do:

• ACATS inbound: Vested cannot receive transfers of existing US securities from another brokerage. If you have shares sitting in E*Trade from a previous employer's RSU program, you cannot move them to Vested.
• RSU consolidation: Vested is a buy-and-hold investing platform, not an equity compensation management platform. It does not integrate with employer RSU portals or handle grant tracking.

3. What Rovia is

Rovia (rovia.one) is an India-facing equity compensation management and US investing platform. Clearing happens through Alpaca Securities LLC, regulated by the SEC (via FINRA) and operating in GIFT City (IFSCA), with SIPC coverage up to $500,000. Like DriveWealth for Vested, Alpaca holds your securities and provides the regulatory backbone.

Rovia also uses the LRS route for new cash remittances. TCS applies on the same terms as Vested. Brokerage is 0.15% per trade, capped at $15 — lower than Vested Basic (0.25% capped at $35) and equal to Vested Premium's rate (0.15% capped at $35), but without the ₹4,500/year fee and with a lower per-order cap. Rovia also charges flat $5 fee on outbound repatriation (you pay only the bank's wire-conversion rate). On cost, Rovia is cheaper than Vested Basic and on par with or better than Vested Premium across most investment sizes.

The difference is what Rovia is built around: RSU consolidation via ACATS inbound transfer.

ACATS (Automated Customer Account Transfer Service) is the US financial industry's standard mechanism for moving securities between brokers. When you join a US multinational and receive RSUs, those shares typically vest into an E*Trade, Fidelity NetBenefits, Charles Schwab, or Morgan Stanley account — whichever the employer has set up. When you change employers, change countries, or simply want a single view of your equity, you are left with shares scattered across multiple US brokers with no consolidated interface.

Rovia supports inbound ACATS transfers from:

• E*Trade (Morgan Stanley at Work)
• Fidelity NetBenefits
• Charles Schwab
• Morgan Stanley (Shareworks / SPS)

This means you can request a transfer of your vested shares from any of these platforms into Rovia, which is designed to be used by Indian residents managing their equity from India.

Rovia also offers direct US stock investing — buying stocks, ETFs, and building a portfolio — not just RSU management. But the RSU consolidation use case is where it is clearly differentiated.

Tax documentation: Rovia's tax tooling is the most comprehensive among India-facing US investing platforms. It provides:

• Lot-level INR P&L with vest-date SBI TT rates pre-applied per lot
• Automated Schedule FA statements (peak balance from daily portfolio snapshots, SBI TTBR-converted)
• Form 67 / Form 44 prep for dividend foreign tax credits
• Realized loss schedule with lot-level carry-forward tracking for tax-loss harvesting
• Specific lot identification at sell time

Beyond tooling for Rovia's own users, Rovia also built a free Schedule FA generator on their website for any Indian investor — including those holding RSUs at Fidelity, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley, or Schwab who have no Indian-facing broker at all. Indian residents at these US employer brokers have historically had no Schedule FA support whatsoever; Rovia's free tool fills that gap entirely outside the platform itself.

For RSU holders, Rovia's tax documentation is meaningfully more capable than what Vested or INDmoney offers.

What Rovia is less suited for:

• Investors with no RSU exposure who simply want to send ₹5 lakh to buy VOO. You can do it, but the platform's design is around equity compensation — the RSU-specific tooling is over-engineered for pure retail use.

4. The ACATS advantage: what consolidation actually enables

It is worth explaining concretely what ACATS consolidation achieves, because the benefit is not obvious if you have never had RSUs scattered across multiple accounts.

A worked example: An engineer at a US multinational joins in 2021, receives an RSU grant that vests into E*Trade over four years, then joins a second company in 2023 that uses Fidelity NetBenefits. By 2026, they have:

• Shares from employer 1 in E*Trade (some sold, some held)
• Shares from employer 2 in Fidelity (multiple vest tranches, different cost basis lots)
• Refresher grants from employer 2 in the same Fidelity account

At tax time, they are reconciling:

• Two different brokerage statements in USD
• Multiple cost basis lots per stock, each with a different acquisition date and price
• TDS certificates from the employer for the perquisite value at each vest
• Capital gains calculations for any sales — short-term (held under 24 months) vs long-term

Doing this across two brokers with no consolidated view is where errors and omissions happen. Schedule FA requires disclosing each foreign account separately. Capital gains calculations require tracking each lot.

When all of this sits in one account — Rovia, post-ACATS transfer — you get:

• A single Schedule FA disclosure entry (one account)
• A single consolidated P&L view
• Tax-loss harvesting across lots from different employers without manual reconciliation
• One brokerage statement to reconcile at year end

This is not a minor convenience. For someone with five or six years of RSU vests from two or three employers, the difference between consolidated and unconsolidated equity management is material to the accuracy of their ITR.

5. Fees comparison

The fee comparison is included for completeness, but as noted above, it is not the axis on which this decision should turn.

Both platforms use SIPC-covered US clearing brokers. Neither is SEBI-registered. Both use the LRS route. The fees are not a differentiating factor.

6. Decision framework: three questions

If you are still uncertain after reading the above, answer these three questions in order:

Question 1: Do you have unvested or vested RSUs sitting in E*Trade, Fidelity, Schwab, or Morgan Stanley?

If yes — go to Rovia. The ACATS inbound capability alone justifies the platform for this scenario. No other India-facing platform currently offers this for the four major employer equity brokers.

If no — continue to Question 2.

Question 2: Are you filing your own ITR-2 and want help with the Schedule FA foreign asset disclosure?

Both Vested and Rovia provide Schedule FA support. Rovia's is more automated (daily portfolio snapshots, SBI TT rates pre-applied, peak balance auto-computed). If you're not on either platform yet, Rovia also offers a free Schedule FA generator on their website for Indian investors at any US broker — Fidelity, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley, Schwab — with no account needed. Schedule FA support is no longer a differentiator between the two platforms.

Continue to Question 3.

Question 3: What is your annual remittance volume?

• ₹2L–₹20L per year: Vested is well-suited. The platform is designed for this range, fractional shares work well at smaller amounts, and the onboarding is straightforward.
• ₹25L+ per year: Consider whether the FX markup matters at your scale. At very high remittance volumes, best-in-class FX (Interactive Brokers via a service like Paasa) may save more than any platform feature comparison is worth.
• GIFT City route (simpler domestic transfer, potential Section 10(4D) capital gains advantage): Neither Vested nor Rovia is the right platform. Dhan offers the GIFT City route via Raise IFSC Pvt. Ltd. Note: TCS applies at standard rates on the GIFT City route — the advantage is operational simplicity and potential capital gains treatment, not TCS exemption.

7. Who should use each platform

Vested is the right choice if you:

• Are investing in US stocks for the first time and want a straightforward onboarding experience
• Send ₹2L–₹20L per year under LRS for US equity exposure
• Want to buy ETFs like VOO, QQQ, or individual US stocks without equity compensation complexity
• Do not have existing RSUs in US brokerage accounts that need consolidation

Rovia is the right choice if you:

• Have RSUs, ESOPs, or vested stock in E*Trade, Fidelity NetBenefits, Schwab, or Morgan Stanley and want to consolidate into a single India-accessible account
• Work at (or have worked at) a US multinational with equity compensation and are managing multiple vest tranches across multiple accounts
• Want tax-loss harvesting visibility across RSU lots from different grant dates
• Want a single Schedule FA disclosure entry covering all your US equity, rather than disclosing each employer broker separately

Neither platform is the right choice if you:

• Want GIFT City / no-TCS remittance structure (look at Dhan or Tickertape)
• Are remitting ₹25L+ per year and FX cost is a primary concern (look at Interactive Brokers via Paasa)
• Are an NRI (non-resident Indian) — LRS is a resident Indian facility; NRI investing has different account structures entirely

Summary

The comparison between Vested and Rovia is not really a comparison of competing general-purpose US investing platforms. They serve different primary use cases.

Vested is a mature, well-documented platform for Indian residents who want straightforward US stock market access under LRS. Both platforms provide Schedule FA support — Rovia's is more automated, and Rovia also offers a free Schedule FA generator for Indian investors at any US broker who don't have an Indian platform at all. For first-time US investors and people building a regular investment habit in US equities without employer equity, Vested does the job well.

Rovia is built around the specific problem of Indian residents who hold equity compensation from US employers and need to consolidate, manage, and report that equity from India. If you have RSUs — particularly if they are spread across multiple employer brokers — the ACATS capability is not a nice-to-have. It is the entire point.

If you do not have RSUs, Rovia is not designed for you in the same way. If you do have RSUs, Vested cannot help you consolidate them.

That is the comparison. One question decides it.

Vested.blog is the editorial publication of Rovia.