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Lowest management fees: unit trusts in Sri Lanka

As at 26 Aug 2026. Ranked on published annual management fee, lowest first. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

In short

Of the 80 Sri Lankan unit trusts with a published management fee, Senfin Money Market Fund charges the lowest at 0.15% a year, followed by Arpico Ataraxia Cash Management Trust Fund at 0.25%. The fee is deducted before the unit price is struck, so it reduces the return whatever the market does. Fees as last published; prices as at 26 Aug 2026.

Every licensed unit trust we track, ordered by its annual management fee. The fee is deducted from the fund’s assets before the unit price is struck, so it reduces what a unit holder receives whatever the market does.

This is the ranking nobody else in this market publishes, and it is arguably the most useful one. A return is a fact about the past. A fee is a fact about the future: it is the one number on a fund page that is knowable in advance and applies every year you hold.

80 funds ranked

Ranked on published annual management fee, lowest first.

Prices as at 26 Aug 2026

Why the fee is worth ranking on

Across the money market funds we track, published returns cluster within roughly a point of each other, because the funds hold very similar instruments. The management fee ranges considerably more widely than that. In a category where the assets are near-identical, the fee is a large share of what actually separates one fund’s outcome from another’s, and unlike the return it does not depend on how the market behaves.

The fee is not the only cost

  • A front-end load, charged when you buy, where the fund has one.
  • An exit fee, often charged on redemptions inside the first year and tapering after.
  • The gap between the fund’s buying and selling price, which is a cost you bear on the way in and out.
  • Trustee and custodian charges, where the fund states them separately from the management fee.

Comparing fees across categories has limits

This page ranks all funds together, which means an equity fund and a money market fund appear in the same list. They do genuinely different amounts of work for their fee: selecting and monitoring listed shares costs more to run than holding treasury bills. A low fee on an equity fund and a low fee on a money market fund are not the same achievement. Compare within a category where you can, using the category ranking pages linked below.

Blank means unknown, not zero

Some funds show no figure in some columns. That is because our daily price record for that fund does not yet reach back far enough to cover the window, or because the fund is not priced publicly at all. We leave those blank rather than substituting a zero, because a fund we cannot measure and a fund that returned nothing are different things and showing them the same way would be misleading.

Common questions

Which Sri Lankan unit trust has the lowest management fee?

The fund at the top of the table on this page, as at the date shown. Fees are published by the fund manager and change rarely, but they do change, so the figure here is the last one published rather than a quotation.

Does a lower fee mean a better fund?

It means more of what the fund earns reaches the unit holder, which is a real advantage and the reason this page exists. It does not mean the fund is better for you: funds with different mandates do different amounts of work, and a fee has to be read next to what the fund actually holds. We rank on the fee and leave the conclusion to you.

Is the management fee already deducted from the returns you show?

Yes. Our figures are calculated from the fund’s published unit prices, and those prices are struck after the management fee has been accrued. So the return you see is after the fee, not before it.

Where does the fee data come from?

The Unit Trust Association of Sri Lanka’s published fee table, refreshed monthly, and the fund managers’ own factsheets. Each fund page states when its fee figures were last updated.

This page ranks funds on one stated measure over one stated period. It is not a recommendation and not advice about your circumstances, and CeylonFunds is not a licensed investment adviser. How we calculate every figure is set out in our methodology.

Other rankings

Highest 180-day return: money market fundsHighest 180-day return: income / fixed income fundsHighest 180-day return: balanced fundsHighest 180-day return: equity fundsHighest 180-day return: gilt / short-term treasury fundsHighest 180-day return: index fundsHighest 180-day return: shariah-compliant fundsLowest minimum investmentLowest volatility

Daily unit prices published by the Unit Trust Association of Sri Lanka (utasl.lk). Performance figures as published by the respective fund managers.