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.
Wealth can buy security, freedom and choice. What it cannot do is address the purpose of financial planning: telling you when to stop. New behavioural research commissioned by Y TREE finds that the most driven wealthy people report both the highest life satisfaction and the highest anxiety, a reminder that knowing what money is for may matter as much as growing it.
Robin Powell
2 days ago9 min read
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