Active Management Performs Much Better Than SPIVA U.S. Scorecard States, Finds New Academic Study

IAA’s Active Managers Council Appoints New Chair and Vice-Chair

WASHINGTON, May 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A new study released today argues that the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard “consistently and substantially” understates the performance of actively managed funds due to certain “empirical choices” in its methodology. The study, titled “How the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard Understates the Performance of Actively Managed Mutual Funds,” was conducted by professors K. J.
Martijn Cremers, University of Notre Dame; Jon Fulkerson, University of Dayton, and Timothy B. Riley (corresponding author), University of Arkansas and supported by the Investment Adviser Association’s Active Managers Council.

The SPIVA (S&P Indices Versus Active) U.S. Scorecard is a widely cited semiannual report from S&P Dow Jones Indices that compares the performance of actively managed mutual funds against their respective S&P benchmark indices. Consistently, the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard claims that the supermajority of actively managed mutual funds underperforms their benchmarks. However, applying their methodology, the authors found that managers performed much better than SPIVA reported.

“Broadly speaking, the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard is too negative on the value of active management. Staying with the Scorecard’s framework, we identify substantially more value after modifying key empirical choices to better align with the actual mutual fund investor experience,” said Professor Riley.

The authors argue that with straightforward changes, the SPIVA methodology could better reflect the typical mutual fund investor’s actual experience. They propose three main modifications:

• First, instead of considering any fund that exits the sample to have underperformed, they consider the performance of funds during their time prior to exit.
• Second, instead of giving all funds equal weight regardless of their size, they weight the results by fund assets.
• Third, instead of comparing against hypothetical benchmarks, they compare against passively managed mutual funds.

By the authors’ calculations, active fixed income managers tend to outperform over both short and long horizons, reversing the SPIVA conclusions. The authors found that 86% of assets in high yield bond funds outperformed over the 5 years ending 2024, in contrast to SPIVA’s report that just 46% of funds in the category outperformed.

Similarly, over the same period, SPIVA substantially overstates managers’ domestic equity underperformance. Applying the authors’ methodology, 43% of domestic equity assets outperformed, nearly three times SPIVA’s figure of 15%.

“The Active Managers Council has long maintained that the active-passive scorecards are overly negative on active management,” said Karen Barr, President and CEO of the Investment Adviser Association which sponsors the Council. “We are pleased that this study not only details the scorecards’ methodology issues but also provides a more realistic view of active management’s aggregate performance.”

The complete study can be downloaded and reviewed from either SSRN or the Council Academic Research page.

The Active Managers Council will host a live webinar with the authors who will discuss their research findings on May 21 from 3:00ET to 4:00ET. Interested participants can register here.

New Appointments for Active Managers Council

Apurva Schwartz was appointed Chair of the Council earlier this year, while Heather Dondis, Head of PR, Sponsorships, and Partnerships at Harbor Capital Advisors was appointed Vice-Chair.

“This study provides an important corrective to the unbalanced narrative on active management. Active managers add value for investors, as this study clearly shows,” added Schwartz, a Portfolio Specialist at Harding Loevner.

About the Investment Adviser Association

The Investment Adviser Association is the leading organization dedicated to advancing the interests of fiduciary investment advisers. For more than 85 years, the IAA has advocated for advisers before Congress and regulators, promoted best practices, and provided education and resources to support advisers serving clients, the capital markets, and the U.S. economy. Our members range from global asset managers to the medium- and small-sized firms that make up the majority of our industry. Together, the IAA’s member firms manage more than $57 trillion in assets for a wide variety of individual and institutional clients, including pension plans, trusts, mutual funds, private funds, endowments, foundations, and corporations. For more information, please visit www.investmentadviser.org.

About the Active Managers Council

The Active Managers Council is the premier industry voice for active investment management. The Council’s mission is to balance the narrative in the market about active and passive management, engage with policymakers about the importance of remaining strategy neutral, and provide media, investors, and thought leaders with accurate, compelling research, data, and content on active and passive management. The Active Managers Council is an Investment Adviser Association initiative.

Contact:
IAA VP of Communications & Marketing Janay Rickwalder 
janay.rickwalder@investmentadviser.org

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