Lesson 10 of 50 for advisers · Trail per crore: the maths of a book · 4 min read · Reviewed 13 Nov 2026
Trail is a percentage a year of the client’s assets, accrued daily inside the scheme’s expenses. At an average trail of 0.8% a year, ₹1 crore of AUM earns about ₹80,000 a year before GST and costs. Actual rates differ by scheme and fund house; the gap between a scheme’s regular and direct expense ratio is the most it can be.
Trail sits inside the scheme’s base expense ratio, which is a percentage a year of daily net assets. So trail grows and shrinks with the client’s portfolio every day.
At 0.8% a year, ₹1 crore earns about ₹80,000 a year, about ₹6,700 a month. A book of ₹25 crore at the same rate earns about ₹20 lakh a year.
Two things grow a book: markets, and net new money from clients. The calculator shows how each moves the trail over five years.
Key idea: Trail is paid only in money; any other incentive from a fund house is barred.
Try the calculator and the one-question quiz on this page to check your own numbers.
No SEBI or AMFI rule fixes it. Fund houses pay on their own commission cycles, usually monthly.
Each fund house sets and tells its distributors the rate. The regular minus direct expense ratio is the upper limit.
Yes. Trail is a share of the assets, so it falls when the portfolio falls.
For learning only, not investment advice. Built in India by a team that tracks its own money on Reva.