Question

• What are the long-term performance records of equity mutual funds relative to benchmarks, linking your answer to the AUM growth of passive investing?  Explain the fee structure and operating expense trends of mutual funds.

Answer 1

Long term equity Mutual Funds which are actively managed have mostly underperformed in respect to the benchmark index as almost 80% of the mutual funds which has been actively managed have been underperformer in respect to the market index. Hence passive investment style is preached in the market.

Asset under management growth of passive investing has grown significantly because there has been a significant underperformance of actively managed mutual funds and hence there has been a focus upon passively managed mutual fund because the cost of the passively managed mutual fund are lower and they are also offering with higher rate of return than active managed Mutual Fund so those investors who are generally looking for the higher rate of return a long period of time looking for the passive investment fund rather than active investment.

Fee structure of actively manage mutual fund are much higher than the passively managed mutual fund because they will be continuously changing the proportion of their portfolio whereas passively managed mutual fund will be copying the index and they will be providing a better rate of return and they will not have to adjust their portfolio again and again so they will be charging a lower charges from investors and operating expenses of actively managed funds are generally higher than the passively managed funds because they are employing higher number of professional for management of the funds.