It depends on your strategy.
ETFs are generally cheaper because most of them are not actively managed (index funds), so you pay less management fees.
However, there are some good index tracking managed funds as well with low management fees.
Don't discount other managed funds too - while most fund managers rarely do better than the index, there are some gems out there - especially if you are looking for some diversification such as exposure to a particular market segment or investment style or geographic market. You just need to do your research and keep a close eye on them.
I don't blindly buy-and-hold managed funds - I treat them like I would any other share investment and consider whether the performance of the fund still meets my criteria and will reallocate capital if I no longer consider the fund to be worth the cost.
Colonial First State have a large range of funds and access to their wholesale platform requires a $100K initial investment (at least it did in the past - haven't looked recently). The wholesale versions of the funds are cheaper than their retail equivalents - although many are still quite pricey compared to an ETF or index fund.
Platinum Asset Management funds are all considered "wholesale" and each fund has a minimum investment of $25K.
For smaller investment amounts, there are other platforms out there which give access to wholesale managed funds - but I haven't kept up with those products in recent years, so I don't know which are still operating and how much they cost. I do seem to remember that the fees you paid to the platform pretty much wiped out most of the savings you got from having wholesale access to the funds compared to their retail equivalents - so the main reason you would invest through those platforms was for the consolidated reporting (makes it easier at tax time) and for access to funds which have a large minimum investment amount such that you normally wouldn't get access to them.
