Fund managers need to raise their benchmarks

Beating performance benchmarks is what fund management is all about but there seems to be little app...

Beating performance benchmarks is what fund management is all about but there seems to be little appetite to take on indices that are hard to outperform. A case in point is the S&P 500, which UK and US-based managers have failed to beat consistently on the whole. As this week's survey shows, only five funds marketed in the UK have managed to do so in each of the past five years and all of these are based offshore. Not only do many UK groups fail to beat the US market but they seemingly have very little appetite for the fight. The usual responses rolled out are that the S&P is too efficie...