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Why active funds underperform even when the manager picks well

The managers running the biggest active funds picked stocks that beat the market in 2025 — and most still lagged their benchmark. A Morningstar do-nothing experiment and a body of academic research explain why active funds underperform even when the picking is good: skilled buying undone by poor selling, the hidden cost of trading, and the incentives that keep managers churning. The UK evidence points the same way.

Robin Powell

Glass and steel office towers in London's financial district, where the asset management firms regulated by the FCA asset management reforms operate

FCA asset management reforms: the £128m question

On 14 July 2026 the FCA proposed the biggest overhaul of UK asset management regulation since the rules were inherited from the EU: a single remuneration code, a new fund-reporting framework and higher size thresholds, worth an estimated £128 million a year to firms. The industry welcomed it within hours. What the reforms mean for ordinary investors, and whether the savings ever reach them, is the debate that has barely begun.

TEBI

Jul 178 min read

The FCA is risking a bigger scandal than Woodford

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