Insight February 2015

The February issue of Insight looks at investment fund performance from multiple vantage points in order to answer a number of crucial questions: To what extent do investment returns influence sales and redemption patterns? Is it absolute or relative investment performance that matters most? Does relative performance still matter in a scenario of strong market gains? Does performance matter for organizations with preferred access to distribution? The answers to most of these questions are far from straightforward. To better address the topic, we have leveraged two industry-leading datasets: Investor Economics’ proprietary funds databases and Morningstar Canada’s extensive set of investment performance metrics. For the first time in Insight, we compare the performance for groups of funds available simultaneously in series A (original) and D (for self-directed investors); or F (for the fee-based platform); or high net worth (HNW). Another first touches on an extensively debated topic: the correlation between MER and trailer levels and investment performance.