Personally, I've always been wary about investing in mutual funds through distributors. It was a basic, simple, selfish allergy to parting with any form of commissions, especially on a long-term basis for comparitively limited value addition.
Of course, this has been driven by my own personal financial literacy levels, which I feel are adequate to satisfy my own needs.
Indeed, I have used distributors before (and may perhaps continue to use them in the future) for reasons of convenience and personal laziness. However, this was done in a fully conscious manner by me. I knew the kind of direct and indirect costs that I was incurring while investing in mutual funds through distributors.
I would like you to become equally conscious of the kind of direct and indirect costs that you are incurring by using distributors for investing in mutual funds.
To aid this process, I'd like you to read this wonderful piece that I picked up from the Quantum Mutual Fund website:
What's interesting is that the above write-up doesn't even bother to focus much on the active and rampant mis-selling that goes on in the world of investing in mutual funds through distributors.
Well ... .... ..... ...... ....... As the saying goes, "Let the buyer beware"!
Regards,
N