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A new academic study reveals what active fund management really sounds like behind closed doors. King's College London professor Crawford Spence interviewed 28 senior fund managers and found an industry that runs on faith rather than evidence — privately conceding it overcharges and underperforms, and now pivoting to retail investors as institutional clients leave. Here's what they say off the record, and how to stop paying for someone else's faith.

Two leading economists argue that personal finance is broken at a structural level — and the UK government's response of deregulation and a cartoon squirrel won't fix it.

New Morningstar research reveals the link between fund fees and performance has strengthened dramatically. A decade ago, some expensive funds generated enough alpha to partially justify their costs. Today, fees explain almost everything. The skill component has essentially vanished.

Chasing last year’s top funds is seductive — and usually self-defeating. New evidence shows performance persistence is largely a mirage: most “winners” slip quickly, especially when markets get rough. Investors who keep costs low and own the market have far better odds of reaching their goals.

SJP's low-cost funds, charging 0.2%, look competitive — but total costs matter more. What existing and prospective SJP clients need to know about value.

The SPIVA persistence scorecard has become a lightning rod for debate. Robin Wigglesworth shows how active managers’ critique collapses under scrutiny — and why persistence is the Achilles’ heel of their case.

New research reveals buffer fund marketing promises don't match reality. AQR Capital Management's comprehensive study of 401 buffer funds shows these complex products consistently underperform simple stock-cash combinations whilst failing to deliver reliable downside protection. The median buffer fund charges 0.79% annually but trails reference assets by 0.07 in risk-adjusted returns, with performance worsening over time.

Fund managers consistently fail at market timing despite claiming expertise, reveals the largest global study of mutual fund performance. While stock picking skills vary by country, timing abilities are universally poor across 21,000 funds in 35 nations. New research challenges industry claims about professional investment skills and fee justification.

Terry Smith's Fundsmith Equity fund has underperformed for four years, losing billions in outflows. But is this evidence of declining skill or simply bad luck? Academic research reveals it takes 36-800 years of data to statistically prove a fund manager has genuine talent rather than benefiting from chance. Smith's 14-year track record, despite early success, is statistically meaningless. His recent struggles with NVIDIA, Apple and Novo Nordisk may look like stock-picking err

Bottom line up front: If you're choosing funds based on past performance, you're likely wasting your time and money. Comprehensive research spanning decades reveals that consistent outperformance among active fund managers is so rare it might as well be random chance — and the few exceptions typically reflect luck rather than skill. The investment industry loves to remind us that "past performance is no guarantee of future results," yet this disclaimer appears to fall on deaf

Many people still believe that investment companies exist to help them. The reality is quite different. The fund management industry is extremely powerful, and its main priority is not your financial wellbeing. Instead of focusing on consumer outcomes, it tends to protect its profit margins. According to financial analyst LOUISE COOPER, the industry thrives on complexity and confusion. It has become skilled at making investing seem harder than it really is. Key takeaways 1. T

The fifth anniversary of the closure of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) is two weeks away. More than 300,000 investors were affected by WEIF’s implosion. Some of them planned to retire by now but are still having to work to recoup the money they lost. Many died without receiving any compensation. You would hope by now the financial industry would have learned the lessons of this sorry saga. Alas I fear it hasn’t, and, five years on, the chance of a recurrence has never

Yes, annual management fees for actively managed funds are far higher than they are for index funds. But it’s the linked costs of active funds that people don’t consider, and those can be even more significant. Anyone who uses so-called budget airlines will be familiar with what economists call linked costs, or junk fees as Americans tend to call them. Linked costs are secondary expenses that arise as a result of buying a primary product or service. So, for instance, you