Ankul Daga: Active versus passive? Actually, it's about cost

There are a great many talented active fund managers in the world today, who are capable of adding real value for investors through clear, focused, active strategies. Looking solely at actively managed assets in the UK, we see a fairly impressive track record. According to our own calculations based on Morningstar data, 10-year rolling returns from 2003 to 2016 show that, before costs, 68% of active equity funds and 57% of active fixed income funds in the UK outperformed their prospectus benchmarks. Why, then, are investors increasingly moving into passive funds? The trend from active...