Manager selection key in tough times
Tough times have made manager selection more important, according to data contained in the Mercer sector surveys for 2008.
The survey data, released this week, not only revealed Australian managers had succeeded in outperforming in the falling markets but that choice of manager had proven important.
The Mercer research said an upper quartile manager would have produced a return of over minus 34.6 per cent while a lower quartile manager would have returned worse than minus 39.7 per cent.
The research has confirmed the tone of a wide range of other assessments of market performance through 2008 but found that Australian shares specialist managers had tended to outperform, with the median manager outperforming the index by 2.3 per cent over the year.
It said this was the best outperformance since 2000 and above the long-term outperformance of 1.4 per cent before fees.
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