Direct Plans' Share of Long-Term SIP Assets Rises to 16.6%

Key Takeaways

• Direct plans accounted for 16.6% of SIP assets held for more than five years in September 2026, up from 6.9% five years earlier. 
• Regular plans still held ₹4.77 lakh crore of the ₹5.73 lakh crore accumulated in SIPs running for more than five years. 
• The share of direct plans has also increased among newer SIP cohorts, including one-to-two-year-old investments. 

The share of direct mutual fund plans in long-running systematic investment plans has more than doubled over the past five years, although regular plans continue to account for most assets in older SIPs. 

Direct plans represented 16.6% of SIP assets held for more than five years in September 2026, compared with 6.9% in September 2021, according to industry data reported by Business Standard. 

Total assets in SIPs running for over five years stood at ₹5.73 lakh crore. Of this, regular plans accounted for ₹4.77 lakh crore, leaving direct plans with a much smaller, though expanding, share of the long-duration SIP pool. 

The shift is also visible across shorter investment periods. 

Among SIP assets in the four-to-five-year bracket, the share held through direct plans has risen to 23.7%, compared with 12.5% earlier. Direct plans have also gained close to 10 percentage points in the three-to-four-year category. 

More recently, the share of direct plans among SIPs running for one to two years increased to 30.9% in September 2026 from 27% in September 2025. For SIPs less than one year old, the direct-plan share rose to 32.3% from 30.7% over the same period. 

The difference between older and newer SIP cohorts partly reflects the relatively shorter history of direct plans. Direct mutual fund plans were introduced in India in 2013 and have gained wider adoption over time, particularly as digital investment platforms made transactions without distributor involvement easier. 

Regular plans, in contrast, include distributor or intermediary commissions in their expense structure and have historically accounted for a larger share of mutual fund assets. 

The latest numbers indicate that regular plans remain dominant among investors who have continued SIPs for extended periods. At the same time, the higher direct-plan share among newer SIP cohorts suggests that the route has gradually gained ground as a channel for mutual fund investing.