If there are thousands of wealth managers, then some would be at the top of the performance table, and some would be at to bottom. Logic, obviously. How would you react if your wealth manager said “we were near the bottom “or”we are bottom”. You would probably say to yourself, “It’s time to move elsewhere”.
In reality, thousands of wealth managers will never say where they are placed.
If they said, “we are average”. But how would you respond to being average? You may say ” So you are telling me you are just average…so that means there are lots of firms above average then”. It seems likely you’ll give the average one a miss as well.
Some may say, “We are above average”. What does that mean? Not all managers can be ‘above average’ as the logic does not work. But being told your wealth manager is above average may satisfy your needs…even if they are just words.
In all probability, whichever wealth manager you talk to, they will tell you, they have some form of outperformance. It’s called sales.
All investors can accept the ‘sales’ story about outperformance if they choose to do so. Thankfully there are a small but growing number of investors who realise that asking better questions will help achieve better outcomes. What camp are you in?