Two speakers at a recent conference for financial planners attacked the notion that you can consistently pick managers whose funds will always feature at the top of the performance tables, or even that you should try to do so. One speaker said that fund managers take risks to deliver returns, and you would be better served by someone who can manage your exposure to “good risks” than trying to identify a top-performing manager. Another speaker said we focus a huge amount of attention on trying to identify funds that will out-perform their peers, whereas this makes a tiny difference to our financial well-being. There are many other aspects of our financial life that deserve far greater focus. Personal Finance puts fund manager performance into perspective.
Personal Finance is published every Saturday in the Pretoria News Weekend, the Saturday Star, The Independent on Saturday and the Weekend Argus.