The number of funds is too damn high

The rise in the number of mutual finds has exploded. In 2009, there were roughly 66,400 for sale across the world and in 2022, there were 137,892. This could be a good thing on the grounds that it offers consumer and adviser choice and the quantity of funds might make sense if they performed in the way their managers intended them to. Last year, actively-managed mutual funds had a huge opportunity to prove their worth amid technology wobbles and the tilt back to value. But they didn’t. The apparent failures of active management – and the costs of those failures – help to drive investors into...