Is your fund distributor a 15% partner in your wealth?

During our latest Fund Advisor Live session on February 27, Navneet Arora asked a question that stopped me mid-sentence. He asked: When we switch from regular plans to direct plans, aren't we ditching the advisor who held our hand all these years? The person who picked up the phone during the 2020 crash. Who sat with us and explained why SIPs work. Who, in some cases, was the reason we started investing in the first place. It is a deeply human question. It deserves more than a quick answer about expense ratios. So let me give it the space it deserves. But first, a number. Because this number will change the way you think about everything that follows. If you invest Rs 25,000 per month through a SIP for 30 years, during your normal working life, and your fund earns 12 per cent before expenses, here is what happens. With a direct plan and a 1 per cent expense ratio, your money grows to roughly Rs 7.8 crore. In a regular plan, at 1.5 per cent, it grows to about Rs 6.3 crore. Same fund. Same fund manager. Same market. But Rs 1.5 crore less in your hands. That is not a small difference. That is a home. That is your daughter's education abroad. That is the distance between retiring comfortably and retiring with worry. Where did that Rs 1.5 crore go? It went into the distribution chain, silently and invisibly, one day at a time, deducted from you

This article was originally published on March 09, 2026.