Actively managed funds under seige

Actively managed mutual funds are facing more pressure for market share from exchange traded funds, separately managed accounts, structured notes and 130/30 funds, according to a study released today by Financial Research Corp. The study also found that financial advisers are increasingly turning to cheaper alternative vehicles to build portfolios. More than 70% of the advisers surveyed by Boston-based FRC said that actively managed mutual funds are still the best investment vehicle for international investing. Just 50% said that they think that actively managed funds are the optimal vehicle for large-cap-equity investing. Also, the demand for traditional asset classes such as large-cap domestic equity, may be softening, FRC said. From 1997 to 2007, large-cap stock funds nearly doubled in assets, FRC reported. But in the past three years, the category posted just single-digit growth. By contrast, alternative investments such as long-short funds posted a compound annual growth rate of 35% during the 10-year period. Other investment vehicles have also grown. From 2002 to 2007, asset allocation funds such as target date and target risk funds had a compound annual growth rate of 28.7%. The findings are based on an online survey of 302 retail advisers and 18 asset managers that was conducted in January and February.