Fund Flops
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Fund managers have thrown in the towel on nearly half of the active funds launched since the end of 2012, Financial Advisor IQ's sister publication Ignites reported earlier this month.
Only 16% of active mutual funds and exchange-traded funds launched over that period made it to the $500 million in assets under management mark after five years, a recent study from Fuse Research found.
"It's extremely competitive out there right now to try and launch a new investment fund and have it be viable over the long run — it's really, really tough," Morningstar analyst Dan Sotiroff told Ignites.
High fees, and poor performance relative to lower cost passive strategies can make it hard for some active managers to attract assets, he said.
Despite the low success rate, managers have continued cooking up new funds. Shops rolled out 571 active strategies in 2023, and closed 436 others, Morningstar data showed.
Fidelity, First Trust, Invesco, Innovator and Franklin Templeton launched the highest number of active strategies since 2014. However, three of those firms were also among the top five fund-shutterers of active funds over the same period.
Large, established fund companies have been throwing strategies against the wall to see what sticks, said Pat Newcomb, a relationship manager at Fuse.
"For a larger manager, they're going to have more resources and ability to do more launches, whereas smaller firms tend to be much more selective to launch their strategies," he told Ignites.
-Chart by Daniel Gil
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'Irreversible Decline'
Mutual funds have been losing market share in recent years... and not just to ETFs, Ignites reported in May.
The percentage of retail investors who own mutual funds fell 10 percentage points since 2018 to 62%, a Broadridge study found. Over the same period, the share using ETFs rose 16 percentage points to 47%. Individual stock ownership also climbed 8 percentage points to 52%.
The mutual fund vehicle isn't yet dead, but Broadridge described an "irreversible decline" in fund assets.
Mutual funds hold just 38% of retail investor assets tracked by Broadridge, compared to 53% in 2018. Learn more here.
Video of the Week
Despite the persistent ebb of outflows from traditional actively managed mutual funds, asset management executives argue there is still "plenty of runway" for this vehicle. Click here or on the image below to watch the video.
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