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Wealth management underperformance: the exposed secret that could cost you millions

Y TREE's analysis of 550 portfolios found that 84 per cent of wealth managers underperformed in 2025. Wealth management underperformance cost investors up to a third of their expected returns — and most don't even know it's happening.

Robin Powell

A fund manager in a dark suit at his desk, hands clasped and head bowed in prayer, with a market chart on his laptop and fund factsheets beside him — illustrating active fund management as a faith-based industry.

The church of active fund management: what fund managers really believe

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.

Robin Powell

3 hours ago8 min read