What are Passive Funds? | SyndicateRoom (2024)

If you want to invest in a portfolio of assets but don't have the time or inclination to do the legwork of picking the investments yourself, you might want to read up on passive funds.

What is a passive fund?

A passive fund is an investment vehicle that tracks a market index, or a specific market segment, to determine what to invest in. Unlike with an active fund, the fund manager does not decide what securities the fund takes on. This normally makes passive funds cheaper to invest in than active funds, which require the fund manager to spend time researching and analysing opportunities to invest in.

Tracker funds, such as ETFs (exchange traded funds) and index funds – essentially any fund that tracks an index such as the S&P 500 or the FTSE 100 – fall under the banner of passive funds, as does our very own Access EIS, the UK's only passive EIS fund.

Are passive investment funds popular?

Traditionally, actively managed funds have been a favoured tool, with fund managers actively seeking investment opportunities for generally high-net-worth clients. However, in the fifteen years up to 31st March 2016, only 29% of actively managed funds had beaten the S&P 500 index.

CNBC and Bloomberg have both written extensively about the popularity of passive funds in the last couple of years, with figures stating that over $90bn was invested into debt ETFs alone in the last year.

What is the fee structure of a passive fund?

One of the key factors in the increasing popularity of passively managed funds has been the costs associated with actively managed funds, which require paying a healthy fee to the fund manager. In recent years, many people have started to question whether the 'wins' achieved by investment managers outweigh the costs, a concern backed up by the research quoted above, which shows that only a minority of actively managed funds beat the S&P 500 index.

By their very nature, passive funds require less effort, so are a becoming a popular vehicle for those who do not always have the time required to chase new investment opportunities.

They benefit from an ease of trade and a high level of transparency. Passive funds such as ETFs can be bought and sold at any time during the trading day, show all the underlying assets and are priced at regular intervals throughout the day.

In terms of minimising costs, it is clear that they have advantages over actively managed funds and certainly would appear an option for investors looking to track the market conditions.

What are the risks of passive funds?

The main risk of investing via a passive fund is that you might over-expose yourself to a small number of sectors or stocks. Because passive funds are skewed to automatically follow the most well-performing opportunities, their portfolios will often contain a small number of high-performing investments. Should these assets suddenly take a turn for the worse, it can quickly cause the overall investment portfolio value to plummet.

With our passive startup fund, we sought to address this issue by prioritising cross-sector diversification as well as a portfolio spread of a minimum of 28 investments.

Access EIS

In 2019, we launched Access EIS – the first and only data-driven passive startup fund in the UK. Access EIS invests passively in EIS opportunities and provide a totally new choice for investors. The fund’s strategy is to use its algorithm to automatically build you a diversified portfolio of at least 50 EIS-eligible early-stage investments, across a broad range of sectors, targeting a return of over 20% IRR excluding EIS tax relief.

By only backing companies that have already attracted interest from one of the UK's top angel investors, Access EIS can build you a diversified EIS portfolio with a minimum investment of just £5,000.

After strong interest, Access EIS – has raised nearly £20m from over 200 investors.

Go to Access EIS

Get your free report

What are Passive Funds? | SyndicateRoom (1)

Want more information on UK investing?

Download your copy of our free guide. Featuring an analysis of UK investor trends, investment case studies and a four-page EIS cheat sheet.

Get your free guide

What are Passive Funds? | SyndicateRoom (2024)

FAQs

What are Passive Funds? | SyndicateRoom? ›

A passive fund is an investment vehicle that tracks a market index, or a specific market segment, to determine what to invest in.

How does a passive fund work? ›

What is a passive fund? A passive fund is an investment vehicle that tracks the stock market, a market index or specific area of the market. Unlike with active funds, a passive fund don't have a fund manager deciding which securities to invest in.

What is the difference between passive and active funds? ›

Nature: Active funds are more dynamic and flexible, as they can adapt to changing market conditions and opportunities. Passive funds are more static and rigid, as they follow a predetermined strategy and do not deviate from the index.

What is the difference between active and passive hedge funds? ›

Hedging: Active managers can also hedge their bets using various techniques such as short sales or put options, and they're able to exit specific stocks or sectors when the risks become too big. Passive investors are stuck with the stocks that the index they track holds, regardless of how they are doing.

Who are the Big 3 passive funds? ›

With more than $23 trillion in assets between them, BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street Corp. have become the top shareholders in many US-listed companies.

Are passive funds safe? ›

Lower costs: Passively managed funds have lower fees and expenses since they require minimal research and trading activity. Less volatile: Passive funds are relatively less risky than active funds because they do not involve unsystematic risks like stock selection.

What are the benefits of passive funds? ›

Passive funds provide investors with diversification and market-linked returns in a low cost and transparent structure. They are ideal for those seeking broad market exposure for long term wealth creation rather than beating market returns.

Is passive investing a high risk? ›

Passive investors hold assets long term, which means paying less in taxes. Lower Risk: Passive investing can lower risk, because you're investing in a broad mix of asset classes and industries, as opposed to relying on the performance of individual stock.

Do passive funds outperform active funds? ›

Because active investing is generally more expensive (you need to pay research analysts and portfolio managers, as well as additional costs due to more frequent trading), many active managers fail to beat the index after accounting for expenses—consequently, passive investing has often outperformed active because of ...

How to do passive investing? ›

Instead of buying stocks in hundreds of companies, you can simply buy shares in an S&P 500 index fund. Index funds provide passive income in the form of dividends and can generate substantial wealth over time. The S&P 500 has risen about 10 percent annually on average over long periods.

How do I know if a fund is active or passive? ›

In general terms, active management refers to mutual funds that are actively managed by a portfolio manager. Passive management typically refers to funds that simply mirror the composition and performance of a specific index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500® Index.

Why might someone choose to invest in a passively managed fund? ›

Lower costs.

Passively managed investments typically have lower expense ratios and management fees compared to actively managed investments. This cost advantage can lead to higher net returns for investors.

What is the goal in passive investing? ›

Passive investing is a long-term investment strategy that focuses on buying and holding investments for the long term. Its goal is to build wealth gradually over time by buying and holding a diverse portfolio of investments and relying on the market to provide positive returns over time.

Are all ETFs passive funds? ›

As the ETF market has evolved, different types of ETFs have been developed. They can be passively managed or actively managed. Passively managed ETFs attempt to closely track a benchmark (such as a broad stock market index, like the S&P 500), whereas actively managed ETFs intend to outperform a benchmark.

What is a lazy portfolio? ›

A Lazy Portfolio is a collection of investments that requires very little maintenance. It's the typical passive investing strategy, for long-term investors, with time horizons of more than 10 years. Choose your investment style (Classic or Alternative?), pick your Lazy Portfolios and implement them with ETFs.

Who invests in passive funds? ›

A passive investor rarely buys individual investments, preferring to hold an investment over a long period or purchase shares of a mutual or exchange-traded fund. These investors tend to rely on fund managers to ensure the investments held in the funds are performing and expect them to replace declining holdings.

Can you make money off passive income? ›

Passive income can be a great way to generate some extra cash and supplement regular earnings from your job. The best ones for you depend on your circ*mstances. "It is important to consider the following: cash flow constraints and requirements, time horizon, and risk tolerance," Cheng said.

How does a passively managed fund work? ›

Known also as “index funds” – passively managed funds do not attempt to outperform a designated index. Rather, they simply seek to mirror the performance of an index by holding the same or similar securities in the same proportions. The managers only buy or sell securities as necessary to correspond with the index.

How much do you need to invest for passive income? ›

Earning passive income from investing involves predicting your return, based upon the investment amount. A $5,000 investment in a dividend fund that pays a 6% yield will provide $300 per year, while successful affiliate websites might earn $1,000 per month or more.

What are the fees for passive funds? ›

Key Takeaways

A reasonable expense ratio for an actively managed portfolio is about 0.5% to 0.75%, while an expense ratio greater than 1.5% is typically considered high these days. For passive funds, the average expense ratio is about 0.12%.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Manual Maggio

Last Updated:

Views: 5951

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (69 voted)

Reviews: 92% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Manual Maggio

Birthday: 1998-01-20

Address: 359 Kelvin Stream, Lake Eldonview, MT 33517-1242

Phone: +577037762465

Job: Product Hospitality Supervisor

Hobby: Gardening, Web surfing, Video gaming, Amateur radio, Flag Football, Reading, Table tennis

Introduction: My name is Manual Maggio, I am a thankful, tender, adventurous, delightful, fantastic, proud, graceful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.