Active Management: Outperforming or Overpaying? - St. Louis Trust & Family Office (2024)

FAQs

Does active management outperform? ›

Before costs and fees, active managers on average beat their benchmarks by 5 bp. After costs and fees, they underperform the benchmarks by 5 bp. Therefore the evidence continues to favor passive investing.

Less than 10% of active large-cap fund managers have outperformed the S&P 500 over the last 15 years. The biggest drag on investment returns is unavoidable, but you can minimize it if you're smart. Here's what to look for when choosing a simple investment that can beat the Wall Street pros.

Potential benefits of active management

Your investments may outperform the market, earning you higher returns that can help you catch up to your savings goals or more comfortably retire. Active managers can move your savings to investments that can help meet your goals across a range of market conditions.

Active management is an approach to investing. In an actively managed portfolio of investments, the investor selects the investments that make up the portfolio. Active management is often compared to passive management or index investing. Active investors use several different techniques to choose investments.

The Needham Aggressive Growth Retail fund beat the S&P 500 index over the past one-, three-, five- and 10-year periods. Its 10-year average return was 12.78%.

What Is the Average Mutual Fund Return Over the Last 20 Years? High-performing large-company stock mutual funds have produced returns of up to 12.86% in the last 20 years. Comparatively, the S&P 500 has produced returns of 8.13% since 2002.

Another driver of the underperformance of active funds, according to McDermott, is fees: “All funds have years where they underperform, however, the longer-term evidence is undeniable that active managers have continued to struggle. The main reason for this underperformance is because active funds charge higher fees.”

Actively managed funds generally have higher fees and are less tax-efficient than passively managed funds. The investor is paying for the sustained efforts of investment advisers who specialize in active investment, and for the potential for higher returns than the markets as a whole.

As of Q2 2023, Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) shares were held by 70 of the 910 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at $4.6 billion. This makes Linde plc (NYSE:LIN) the most commonly owned stock by hedge funds on our list of 13 stocks that outperform the S&P 500 every year for the last 5 years.

On the downside, active management may be more expensive than passive management, and it may also be more time-consuming. Additionally, active managers may be more likely to take on more risk than passive managers.

Do active funds outperform passive funds? ›

However, when considering a 10-year scope, only 44% of active funds kept above the index and the active average return for 10 years only hit 56.5% while passive reached 60.5%. “While all active fund investors expect outperformance, it's not statistically possible for all managers to outperform,” Khalaf said.

Active management has benefits, such as the potential for higher returns, the ability to adjust to market conditions, and the opportunity for diversification. However, active management also has drawbacks, such as higher fees, difficulty in consistently outperforming the market, and the risk of human error.

Still, there are active managers that do outperform, although many don't outperform consistently. The S&P U.S. Persistence Scorecard found that just 37% of above-median large cap managers in one five-year period remained in the top half in the following five-year period.

The answer might not be as straightforward as it seems. According to extensive research, a staggering 94% of active fund managers do not beat the market. It's an inconvenient truth that even financial titans like Warren Buffett's Berkshire have now underperformed the S&P 500 over a 20-year period. But why is this so?

Active management requires frequent buying and selling in an effort to outperform a specific benchmark or index. Passive management replicates a specific benchmark or index in order to match its performance. Active management portfolios strive for superior returns but take greater risks and entail larger fees.

However, when considering a 10-year scope, only 44% of active funds kept above the index and the active average return for 10 years only hit 56.5% while passive reached 60.5%. “While all active fund investors expect outperformance, it's not statistically possible for all managers to outperform,” Khalaf said.

For example, when the market is volatile or the economy is weakening, active managers may outperform more often than when it is not. Conversely, when specific securities within the market are moving in unison or equity valuations are more uniform, passive strategies may be the better way to go.

When things go well, actively managed funds can deliver performance that beats the market over time, even after their fees are paid. But investors should keep in mind that there's no guarantee an active fund will be able to deliver index-beating performance, and many don't.