Dan Brocklebank: The mistrust driving the shift to passive funds

There is a growing mistrust in fund management. Many investors either know - or at least suspect - that many active managers do not deliver good value for money. That mistrust has for some time been fuelling a massive shift into passive strategies - as any quick scan of the financial news headlines will attest. But what the headlines do not reveal is there is also a cyclical aspect here. When equity markets are rising - as they have been ever since bottoming in 2009 - nobody wants to be left out. As bull markets mature, money ends up chasing the shares that have performed well. This ends...