A mutual fund is a tax wrapper, not just a basket. The manager's churn inside it costs you nothing until you sell your units. That deferral is a quiet, free loan from the taxman, and it compounds for years.

In a PMS the shares sit in your name, so the manager's trades are your taxable events. A high-turnover year is a tax bill you did not approve trade by trade, landing whether you withdrew a rupee or not.

Compare after tax, not the gross number on the deck. Ask one question of any PMS pitch. How often do you trade. The answer is the size of the tax drag the brochure never prints.