Grant Thornton: performance fees not leading to better returns

The adviser's own analysis of a sample of investment companies between 2003 and 2007 found that on average funds without performance fees perform slightly better than those with performance fees. The study also indicated that within this sample performance fees have historically beaten their benchmarks 53pc of the time whereas those without performance fees did so 59pc of the time. The study looked at the incidence and structure of performance fees in a population of 240 companies that were members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). Over 45pc of mainstream investment com...