The European fund industry is currently facing a changing market environment. On one hand, it has become apparent that European investors prefer ETFs over mutual funds as a distribution wrapper, especially in the segment of equity products. This trend has already started to hurt the balance sheets of some fund promoters in Europe. Therefore, any fund promoter in Europe needs to make a strategic decision whether or not to also offer its products in an ETF wrapper in the future. On the other hand, it seems that the old distribution approaches no longer work as well as in the past,

Active fund managers are permanently under scrutiny in the ongoing debate about the value added by active management compared to passive products such ETFs and index funds. The debate is often driven by a view on management fees, with critics arguing that actively managed funds are too expensive and do not in most cases deliver any value added for their investors. This argument is correct if one only looks at performance tables measuring the relative performance of an actively managed fund versus its benchmark since only a minority of active managers are able to achieve an outperformance relative to their

Although the active versus passive debate has been around virtually as long as mutual funds have existed, active fund houses in Europe have been subject to considerably more scrutiny over the last 12 months. The recent interim FCA Asset Management Market Study in the U.K. highlighted some key points on the ability of the active fund industry to add value. Previously, a statement by the European Securities and Markets Authority highlighted the issue of “closet tracking,” which presented some active fund participants in an unflattering light. The ongoing debate on the merits of active investing versus passive investing will undoubtedly

Jake Moeller argues that the benefits of the active funds industry need to be articulated more strongly by its exponents. The active versus passive fund debate evokes considerable passion among investors and analysts alike. If you type the topic into an Internet search engine, you can find yourself surfing for many hours garnering interesting views and opinions on the subject, ranging from serious and controlled academic studies to more anecdotal takes. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the subject also gets a lot of coverage in social media, with performance data and news items often commented on and redistributed with as much gusto