Wealth managers forced to select passives as US funds lag S&P 500

The inability of US funds to outperform the S&P 500 has been a long-standing concern for fund selectors, but performance figures for the term of Barack Obama's presidency paint a particularly bleak picture.

During his term, from January 2009 to October 2012, just seven out of 87 funds in the IMA North America sector have managed to beat the S&P 500, during what has been a turbulent time for the world’s largest economy (see table below). The sector average return over the period was 52.49%, while the S&P 500 gained 68.05%, according to Morningstar. Fund returns varied considerably over the period from a high of 77.4% for the CF Greenwich fund, down to 28.28% for the Investec American fund. However, of the seven funds which have beaten the index, the majority are deemed too small and illiq...