SPIVA Scorecard should look into fees' impact on fund performance

New York

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released its biannual SPIVA Scorecard, which compares active and passive investments. I suspect few investors noticed and even fewer cared.

Investors have long accepted what the scorecard unfailingly shows - that the vast majority of active fund managers lose to their benchmarks net of fees. The latest scorecard doesn't alter that conclusion. Only 15 per cent of US equity funds and 9 per cent of international ones beat their benchmarks over the last 15 years through June. The numbers are similar for fixed-income managers.