afi or direct shares

just wondering what peoples thoughts were on buying a lic like afi or buying 7 to 10 of their top holdings. afi is currently paying around 4 % yield plus franking where as if you bought say cba wbc tls wes wow tcl bhp amc amp you might yield around 5.5 to 6% plus franking. a portfolio like this would make up around 40 % of afi holdings. im mainly looking for dividend income is it a lot more risky proposition to hold the shares directly I noticed in the gfc afi dropped around 50% and most of the blue chips above would of dropped a similar amount. if you buy afi should you then not hold the same top shares they hold as you are essentially doubling up on the same exposure. I was very keen on the lics at one stage I owned around 7 of them ( afi djw cie wde pic bki wam wax) and was going to try and concentrate on trading them mainly thanks for any insights