Graham Bentley: Buying the index is not buying the market

Common standard must be agreed

Passive funds may be on the rise but the ever-widening set of stockmarket indices they can mirror acts as a barrier to clarity and transparency of performance, argues Graham Bentley.

My New Year has so far been defined by attending various investment committees at home and abroad, mostly concerned with refreshed asset allocation strategies and subsequent fund selection decisions. There have been two prevailing issues - the regulator's Asset Management Market Study, and cost pressure directing fund selection towards indexing. There are nuances within the latter to which the market study would do well to give more serious consideration. Advisers recognise the population of asset class buckets with suitable funds is fraught with uncertainty. The huge proliferation an...