Sometimes I am amazed that there is still a debate over investing in index mutual funds vs. actively managed mutual funds. Index funds have a proven record without the added risk.

Since the fund company had to pay the advisor the commission what they do is increase the MER of the fund by about 0.5% compared to Class A units. This means your return will be 0.5% lower each year compared to if you had bought the Class A fund. When you buy this type of fund you are also locked in for a period of seven years (time frame could vary). If you sell prior to this you have to pay a penalty to the fund company allowing them to recoup the commission they paid to the advisor. Between the locked in period and the higher MER this option is clearly not in the client’s best interest.

There are various schemes and your manager can suggest you the paramount option according to your requirement. You can start off with a very small amount which can be directly debited from your bank account on a monthly basis. You can enter this sector with a low investment and can grow steadily. Fund managers keep a track of mutual fund NAV and accordingly suggest when to sell it off. Company that maintain records are trustworthy and you can be assured that your money is safe.

“Over the last five years, only 10% of active funds in the International Equity category, 13.9% in the Global Equity category, and 9.2% in the U.S. Equity category have outpaced S&P EPAC LargeMidCap, S&P Developed LargeMidCap and S&P 500 indices respectively.” So over the last five years 93.6% of Canadian equity funds, 90.8% of US equity funds, 90% of International equity funds and 86.1% of Global equity funds have underperformed their respective indices.

I took the most widely owned Canadian equity fund, the RBC Canadian Equity Fund and compared the holding to the RBC Canadian Index Fund. The data used is from the RBC 2009 semi annual report which had the holdings as of June 30, 2009. The majority of the investments held in the two funds, 77.36%, were the same, with 22.64% being different. It is only the returns of this 22.64% of unique assets of these two funds and total fees which will have an impact on the variance of their returns. The MER of the RBC Canadian Equity Fund was 1.97% and the RBC Canadian Index Fund was 0.68% a difference of 1.29%.

It could be really tricky to find the best fund for you. You may like to invest in a fund whose manager thinks exactly the way you do. Important is to get comfortable with the fund manager who understand your needs and accordingly take action. You may also buy an index fund which runs on autopilot. It is always better to read the annual report before investing. Fund manager compares the NAV’s of various companies and suggests the best option. Just be careful with high risk portfolios to play safe in the market

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 1:33 am and is filed under Finance.