Three things to check before you blame the market.
01
Open the factsheet and find the plan name. If it does not say Direct, you are in Regular and paying the trail. Same scheme, two doors, and the cheaper one has been sitting right next to you the whole time.
02
A fee is not a one-time cost, it is a compounding leak. One point a year does not skim one percent of your money, it skims the future growth of every rupee it takes. That is why a tiny gap becomes lakhs.
03
The trail buys you advice only if advice is what is arriving. A distributor who genuinely reviews your portfolio earns it. One who sold you a fund once and went quiet is collecting rent on a sale they already made.
The market is the part you cannot control. The plan you are in is the part you can. Same fund, same NAV, and the only thing standing between the two numbers is which door you walked through.