Every NRI who starts investing globally eventually hits the same fork in the road: buy the stocks and ETFs yourself through a brokerage account, or hand the decision-making to a professional — a fund manager, PMS provider, or AIF — and let them build the portfolio for you. Both are legitimate. Neither is universally “better.” They trade off cost, effort, control and diversification differently, and most NRIs pick one without ever seeing the trade-off laid out clearly.

This article lays it out: what direct and indirect global investing actually mean, what each costs in real terms, how much time and expertise each requires, and how they tend to fit different types of investors. It’s general information to help you think through the decision, not a recommendation of either route — see the disclaimer at the end before acting on anything here.

Key Takeaways

• Direct investing means buying stocks, ETFs or bonds yourself through a brokerage account — you make every decision and pay per-trade or currency-conversion costs, typically well under 1% a year.
• Indirect investing means allocating to a professionally managed vehicle — an offshore fund, GIFT City AIF, or PMS — where a manager builds and rebalances the portfolio, typically for a 1%–2% annual management fee, sometimes plus a performance fee.
• Direct investing demands more of your own time and market knowledge; indirect investing demands a higher minimum ticket and trust in a manager’s process.
• Most sophisticated NRI portfolios end up using both: a direct core for low-cost broad exposure, and select indirect allocations for strategies that are hard to replicate yourself.

None of this is personalised advice — see the disclaimer at the end.

What “Direct” Global Investing Actually Means

Direct investing is exactly what it sounds like: you open a brokerage account that gives you access to international markets, and you personally choose and buy individual stocks, ETFs or bonds. Several platforms now let NRIs do this using NRE or foreign-sourced funds, subject to the broker’s own eligibility checks and applicable regulations. You decide what to buy, when to buy it, and when to sell.

There’s typically no meaningful minimum to open an account, though a genuinely diversified direct portfolio — enough positions to not be dangerously concentrated in a handful of stocks — usually needs somewhere in the $5,000–$20,000 range to do properly, whether through individual holdings or a mix of a few broad-market ETFs.

What “Indirect” Global Investing Actually Means

Indirect investing means putting capital into a vehicle where someone else makes the day-to-day investment decisions on your behalf — an offshore mutual fund, a Portfolio Management Service (PMS), or an Alternative Investment Fund such as those based in GIFT City. You’re buying access to a manager’s process, research team and track record, not picking the individual holdings yourself.

These structures typically carry meaningfully higher minimums than a brokerage account — offshore regulated funds often start around $50,000, while GIFT City AIFs and many PMS-style mandates commonly require $100,000–$250,000 or more, offered by private placement to eligible investors rather than to the general public. Exact minimums and eligibility criteria vary by provider and are worth confirming directly against current scheme documents.

Cost: Brokerage Fees vs Management Fees

Direct investing costs tend to be transactional and small: many international brokers charge low or zero per-trade commissions on US-listed stocks, with the bigger cost usually being the currency-conversion spread when moving money from INR or another currency into USD, typically in the region of 0.5%–1% each way. Held for the long term, an all-in direct cost of well under 1% a year is common.

Indirect investing costs are ongoing and structural: a management fee, typically 1%–2% of assets under management per year, and for many AIF and PMS structures, a performance fee as well — often in the range of 10%–20% of returns above a stated hurdle rate. Over a long holding period, this fee load is significantly higher than the direct route, and it applies regardless of whether the manager beats the market that year.

Time and Expertise Required

Direct investing asks the most of your own time and knowledge. You’re responsible for researching what to buy, monitoring positions, rebalancing, and deciding when to exit — ongoing work that many people underestimate when they first open a brokerage account. Getting it wrong doesn’t just mean underperformance; concentrated, poorly researched direct positions are how a lot of self-directed portfolios actually lose money.

Indirect investing asks for far less of your time day-to-day — the manager does the research and rebalancing — but it shifts the work to a different task entirely: properly vetting the manager before you commit capital. Track record, team stability, fee structure and how the strategy performed in down markets all matter more than most investors initially realise.

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Diversification and Risk Control