What is the difference between buying a mutual fund from a broker or direct let's say from Janus Funds?

A lot depends on the broker. Full service brokers will attempt to steer you to funds with front end loads. Some internet brokers charge pretty steep fees to buy no load funds. Some are more reasonable.

The only real benefit is having all of your assets in one place. There may also also be a drawback. I am not certain. If you re-invest your dividends the mutual fund company will keep track of your cost basis. The broker may not. There are certain no-load funds that reimburse the broker. The broker will have a list of those funds. With those there will be no fees.

Using the Janus Funds can scew the answer a bit. Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade & many other on-line brokers allow funds like JANUS to be sold for no commission or transaction cost. They're paid via the expence ratio & or 12B1 fees within the fund itself. From your point of view.... you'd be charged that amount anyway. So net... no difference.

Full service brokers sell "loaded" funds only. There is a commision charge for each investment. The average charge is 5.75%. ($575 for every $10,000 you invest). THIS DOES NOT GO TO THE MUTUAL FUND COMPANY..... it goes to the person that sold it to you & the company they work for.

The internal fees, on average, are the same for loaded & no-load funds.

What do you get for the 5.75%.... sometimes good advice... sometimes not. A little self education can save you 10's of thousands of dollars over a lifetime by buying "no-load", low fee funds.

Read;

Mutual Funds For Dummies

Look to the future. If your going to make a single purchase and leave it alone for 20 years then go direct to the fund. If your going to become an investor and buy more or other funds or make trades then go to a discount broker like Fidelity or Vanguard. They keep records for you for tax purposes etc. They can hold IRA funds. If you change jobs you can transfer your IRA's to them and keep everything in one place. Over the years you may wind up with a lot of different thing so I try to keep it all in one place. I have my IRA my Roth IRA, my wifes IRA and Roth and my kids UGMA within one umbrella accout.

if you buy it from broker, you 'll get fee n maybe a little easier on the paper work:)