Active Management. Good or Bad?

“Advisors and investors are increasingly focused more on lower fee products amid expectations that finding consistently strong performing active funds is hard.”

Passive investing (index funds and exchange traded funds) has been a trend on Wall Street for years.  So, what’s different?  The answer:  The trend is increasing at an alarming rate and investors are now retreating from actively managed funds that are beating their benchmark index.  According to data from Morningstar, investors pulled $99 billion from the actively managed funds that beat their benchmarks over a 12-month period ending January 31, 2017.  This is a remarkable trend given that most investors typically chase funds with high performance and high returns.

The reasons are many, and certainly lower fees is part of the reason, but not the only factor for this dramatic trend.  Another very important factor is that the number of managed funds that consistently beat the index over a long period of time is small.  According to data from Charles Schwab, the number of funds that score in the top 25% for at least two years is 1,098.  The number of funds drops to 702 at the end of three years, and to 33 funds at six years.  Only 4 funds score in the top 25% for at least seven years, and none stay in the top 25% for eight years.

The article goes on to say that this trend may encourage more actively managed funds to focus on bringing down the fees for their investment products in order to compete with the expense ratios for index funds and exchange traded funds.

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Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to

• Discuss the difference between index funds, ETFs, and managed funds.
• Reinforce how important fees and performance are when choosing a mutual fund.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the difference between a managed fund, an index fund, and an exchange traded fund?
2. Which type of fund do you think could help you obtain your investment goals? Why?