Fund managers need to answer for a decade of dismal returns

A handful of the 25 managers "coped with the challenges reasonably well, giving average returns of five per cent after fees and tax.

"But many have done appallingly," the magazine found.

Five of the funds didn't even match inflation so investors had less money in real terms than they had put in ten years earlier. So much for saving for your retirement!

Tower had one fund at the top of the list and one at the bottom. Tower GAM Global Gateway had net annual returns of 6.6 per cent over the 10 years while the Tower Global Fund returned a "truly dismal 1.4 per cent".

Over the ten years, the Morgan Stanley World Gross Index (MSI) showed gross returns of 6.4 per cent in New Zealand dollars – exactly the same as the average return of putting your dosh in the bank on six-month revolving term deposits.

More than half of the funds examined by Consumer did not match the MSI return.

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