Why MF vendors haven't grown as fast as MF assets

A rising tide does not lift all boats—an adage that mutual fund distributors will vouch for.

- Srushti Vaidya & Apoorva Ajith

While equity assets under management grew a record 10x in the last decade, the number of mutual fund distributors just 2.5x. Industry executives and experts pointed to three reasons: Popularity of direct plans which bypass distributors; lack of incentives for fund houses to train distributors; and Sebi's efforts to crimp the total expense ratio (TER), which is now capped at 1.05-2.25%.