Mutual Fund Mastery interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

32

Firms

19

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsVanguard5BLBlackRock3FTFranklin Templeton3Invesco3PIMCO3Fidelity Investments2J.P. Morgan2Morningstar2Neuberger Berman2SCSchroders2T. Rowe Price2Amundi1BMBNY Mellon1Goldman Sachs1Man Group1Northern Trust1SSState Street1Sycamore Partners1WMWellington Management1

Topic

All topicsFund structure and regulation7NAV and operations6Scheme categorisation4Equity schemes5Debt schemes7Risk, liquidity and disclosure7Index funds and ETFs6Hybrid and solution schemes3Costs, plans and commissions6SIP and investor mechanics5Performance measurement6Taxation5Distribution, compliance and NISM5Portfolio construction and advice5Estimation and numeracy5Markets and industry6Career and fit12

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 004What do the trustees actually do, and how independent are they in practice?Fund structure and regulationHardtechnicalIndian AMCsCompliance and legal

   Say this

   Legally they are the owners of the scheme's assets and the primary supervisors of the AMC. Practically, they are a quarterly oversight board with a small staff who rely almost entirely on what the AMC reports to them, which is the structural weakness of the model.

   Then walk it

   1. The formal duties: approve every new scheme, ensure the AMC invests within the SID mandate, certify compliance to SEBI twice a year, review investor complaints and net worth, and confirm no conflict of interest in transactions with associates.
   2. Composition is the safeguard. At least two-thirds of trustees, or of the trustee company's directors, must be independent of the sponsor. A trustee cannot simultaneously be an AMC director.
   3. They can remove the AMC. That is the nuclear option and it has effectively never been used in India, which tells you something about how the relationship works in practice.
   4. SEBI tightened this after 2020. Trustees now have an explicit duty to independently evaluate fairness of fees, mis-selling, and unusual scheme performance, and must appoint their own audit firm rather than relying only on AMC-supplied reports.
   5. The honest assessment: the sponsor pays for the trustee company, the AMC produces the data, and the information asymmetry is enormous. The Franklin Templeton wind-up ran through a trustee-approved process. If asked whether the model works, say it is a necessary legal separation with weak informational teeth, and that is why SEBI regulates the AMC directly as well.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying trustees 'manage the fund'. They do the opposite — they supervise the manager. And if you claim the structure makes fraud impossible, an interviewer who has lived through 2020 will push back hard. Acknowledge the information gap.

   Expect next

   • What did SEBI change about trustee responsibilities after the 2020 debt wind-ups?
   • Who audits the trustee?
   • Give me an example of a conflict the trustee is supposed to catch.
2. 007Compare the Indian mutual fund structure with a US 40 Act fund and a European UCITS.Fund structure and regulationHardsuperdayGlobal asset managersGCC and KPO research centres

   Say this

   All three are daily-dealing, diversified, retail-regulated vehicles, but they get there differently. India uses a trust with independent trustees. The US uses a corporation with an independent board that renegotiates the advisory contract every year. UCITS uses a European directive with hard-coded diversification limits and a cross-border passport.

   Then walk it

   1. India: SEBI Mutual Fund Regulations 1996, trust structure, prescriptive scheme categories since 2017, capped expense ratios by AUM slab, and mandatory portfolio disclosure. Very rules-based on what a scheme may hold.
   2. US: Investment Company Act of 1940. The fund is a company with a board, mostly independent directors, and section 15(c) requires that board to approve the advisory fee annually — governance does the work that SEBI's TER slabs do in India.
   3. UCITS: a directive, mostly domiciled in Luxembourg or Ireland, with the 5-10-40 diversification rule, eligible asset restrictions, and a derivative exposure limit measured by commitment or VaR. Once authorised in one member state it can be sold across the EU on a passport.
   4. Disclosure differs in flavour. India mandates a risk-o-meter and fortnightly portfolios. UCITS has a short KID with a numeric risk indicator. The US relies on the prospectus, the SAI and quarterly holdings filings.
   5. The sharpest structural contrast is fee regulation. India caps the TER by regulation. The US caps nothing and lets an independent board and competition do it — which is how Vanguard's at-cost model pushed the industry to single-digit basis points.
   6. Why it matters for an interview at an Indian AMC or a GCC: cross-listed feeder funds, FPI flows and offshore India funds all sit in one of these wrappers, and the tax and disclosure treatment follows the wrapper, not the strategy.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating this as trivia. The examinable idea is that India regulates the product, the US regulates governance, and Europe regulates portfolio limits and then lets the passport handle distribution. If you can state that in one line you have answered it even if you forget the 5-10-40 detail.

   Expect next

   • What is the 5-10-40 rule?
   • Why can a UCITS be sold across Europe but an Indian scheme cannot?
   • Which structure gives an investor better protection, and why?

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.