ActiveShare.info Now Includes Equity Fund Data through Year-End 2016

SOUTH BEND, Ind., June 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Martijn Cremers, Professor of Finance at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, noted for co-introducing the concept of Active Share, has announced that ActiveShare.info has been updated, and now contains data measuring active management and fees for U.S. equity funds through year-end 2016.

ActiveShare.info is a free web resource that helps advisors and investors identify true active management and better understand its costs as part of their due diligence efforts. While high Active Share doesn't guarantee outperformance, empirical evidence from earlier academic studies showed that having a higher Active Share improves a fund's opportunity to beat its benchmark. Low Active Share funds have, historically, substantially underperformed their benchmarks.

ActiveShare.info helps advisors and investors quickly find the Active Share component of any U.S. equity mutual fund's portfolio – which shows the proportion of the fund holdings that differs from the benchmark holdings – and compare as many as four different funds. There is no charge to use the site. Using the fund name or ticker, site visitors can use ActiveShare.info to get the following information:

• Current and historical Active Share data
• The fund's holdings duration, which measures the length of time the stocks have been in the portfolio – a measure of manager patience
• The fund's "active fee," which rescales a fund's expenses for its active portion, so that investors can consider the manager's hurdle rate to earn back the fees through the portfolio's active component alone

"With the addition of data through year-end 2016, ActiveShare.info provides transparency for advisors and investors to make more informed decisions about which mutual funds to invest in. It allows comparisons of funds over the period of 2011 through Dec. 31, 2016 to analyze whether a fund that calls itself 'actively managed' is actually earning its fee," said Dr. Cremers.

Many U.S. fund portfolios are not highly differentiated from their benchmarks. Truly active asset managers have an Active Share above 80% or 90%. However, only about 30% of assets in mutual funds are currently in funds with an Active Share of at least 80%, and only about 10% in funds with an Active Share of at least 90%, according to Dr. Cremers.

"With ActiveShare.Info, investors, their financial advisors and the entire asset management industry can get a comprehensive look at which managers are truly active, and which ones are not," said Steven M. Graziano, president of Touchstone Investments. "The fund information provided clearly shows that all active funds are not alike. We believe it is important to consider a manager's process, the way portfolios are constructed and the cost per unit of 'activeness' to determine if a manager is truly active and can provide a different and positive experience relative to passive investing."

Active Share measures the fraction of a fund's portfolio, based on position weights, that differs from its benchmark index. Active Share is not a performance measurement. A high level of Active Share does not assure outperformance of a fund relative to its benchmark index. There are no assurances that any strategy or investment approach will meet its objectives.

About ActiveShare.info

ActiveShare.info is maintained and copyrighted by Martijn Cremers, Bernard J. Hank Professor of Finance at the Mendoza College of Business of the University of Notre Dame. The content, for informational purposes only, is given on a best-effort basis and without charge.

Professor Cremers would like to acknowledge Touchstone Investments for its support throughout the development of this site. Professor Cremers serves as an external, independent consultant for Touchstone Securities, Inc., a registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Touchstone Funds are distributed through Touchstone Securities, Inc.

Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus and the summary prospectus contain this and other information about the Fund. To obtain a prospectus or a summary prospectus, contact your financial advisor or download and/or request one at TouchstoneInvestments.com/literature-center or call Touchstone at 800.638.8194. Please read the prospectus and/or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

Media Contact:
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SOURCE ActiveShare.info

Related Links

https://activeshare.info