19 Jan 2017

Low-fees – a predictor of fund performance

Global ETF assets under management are now $3.5trn.

  • Large institutional clients are expected to allocate more money to ETFs with a survey result forecasting that the market will double in the next five years.
  • Retail flows in the US mutual fund and ETF industry have once again maintained the strong trend to low-cost funds. Morningstar estimates annual flows (to end April 2016):
    Active: – $300bn
    Passive: $380bn

In April 2016, Morningstar released updated research into the impact of fees on performance. The conclusion reached is that fees are an excellent predictor of fund performance – the lower the fees the more likely the fund will survive and outperform its peer group.