Page 1 of 2 Lowell Weiss, WMS, J.D. 31500 Northwestern Hwy Suite 150 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 248-932-5450
[email protected] Active vs. Passive Portfolio Management One of the longest-standing debates in investing is over the company and its securities, it's difficult if not impossible to gain relative merits of active portfolio management versus passive an advantage over any other investor. As new information management. With an actively managed portfolio, a manager becomes available, market prices adjust in response to reflect tries to beat the performance of a given benchmark index by a security's true value. That market efficiency, proponents say, using his or her judgment in selecting individual securities and means that reducing investment costs is the key to improving deciding when to buy and sell them. A passively managed net returns. portfolio attempts to match that benchmark performance, and Indexing does create certain cost efficiencies. Because the in the process, minimize expenses that can reduce an inves- investment simply reflects an index, no research is required for tor's net return. securities selection. Also, because trading is relatively infre- Each camp has strong advocates who argue that the advan- quent--passively managed portfolios typically buy or sell secu- tages of its approach outweigh those for the opposite side. rities only when the index itself changes--trading costs often are lower. Also, infrequent trading typically generates fewer Active investing: attempting to add value capital gains distributions, which means relative tax efficiency. Proponents of active management believe that by picking the Popular investment choices that use passive management are right investments, taking advantage of market trends, and at- index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).