The Overlooked Effects of Passive Management

By many accounts, investors, particularly retail investors, are a beleaguered bunch. The reasons for this are numerous. The global COVID-19 pandemic that has caused suffering for millions of people and depleted global economic value is only the most palpable among them. Other significant concerns have persisted for decades. One of them is that the fees investors must pay to mutual fund managers and securities brokers are generally too high, depriving investors from realizing the full benefit of the appreciation of their investments or, worse, depleting the investments’ value. A second is that, regardless of how much an investor loses in fees, she is likely to lose also as a result of the particular investment strategies by which her investments are managed, which often are unable to generate returns exceeding market returns.