Managed funds or ETFs

Which has a better return, a managed fund such as Platinum International/Asia or  its ASX equivalent, or some sort of ETF?

While high growth is ‘nice’, we prefer a balance of growth of about 8% to protect the base, and income of more than 8%, ideally paid half yearly.

I have a SMSF in pension phase.

  • $400k in cash at only 3% return (but helps us sleep at night)
  • $400k in shares with 9% growth and 9% dividends
  • $250k available for some regular income producing vehicles.

A: Thanks for the question.

I can’t give you a definitive answer. Potentially, you would expect that an actively managed fund – such as Platinum International Asia – will in the medium term, provide a higher return than a passively managed ETF that just tracks an index. However, there is a lot of debate about this – the research says that some active managers outperform, while many others don’t. Active managers also charge a lot more, so they need to first recover “their fee” before the investor gets in front.

Track record is an important indicator – and with Platinum, this gets pretty high marks.


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