For sure mutual funds in Asia are on average smaller and this means it's more expensive for fund managers, as many of their expenses get cheaper in volume. Many Asians evidently feel that if they are going to invest, they rather buy their own portfolio of shares. Many of us have learned in the last decade that farming out your savings and forgetting about them can be plainly irresponsible. Investors who want others to handle their money need to keep or at least perceive that the handlers are honest. You have to be either a smarter client or a smarter investor.
Ignorance is no longer an option.
In the US over the past decade we have witnessed the democratization of Wall Street. Meaning, more and more people of all walks of life directly own listed shares in their own name. And this not just in North America, as in fact slowly so this is a global trend. In early 1997, only 1 out of 10 Germans owned directly or indirectly shares in listed stocks. Today, this number is close to one person in five.