It’s report card time for Canadian active managers, and most get a failing grade, according to the Canada S&P Indices Versus Active Funds (SPIVA) Scorecard.

Highlights of the report (all data as of June 30, 2015):

Domestic equities

  • The majority of Canadian active managers saw their returns lag the benchmark, with just 39.62% of Canadian equity funds outperforming the S&P/TSX Composite.

Read: Invesco report hits back at active fund critics

  • Only 9.84% of managers in the Canadian Focused Equity category outpaced the blended index, which allocates 50% of its weight to the S&P/TSX Composite, 25% of its weight to the S&P 500, and 25% of its weight to the S&P EPAC LargeMidCap.
  • However, the one-year data shows favorable results for actively managed funds in the Canadian Small-/Mid-Cap Equity category, with over 72% of managers outperforming the benchmark, the S&P/TSX Completion.

Foreign equities

  • The majority of active managers in the International Equity category saw their returns lag the benchmark, as only 37.84% of international equity managers beat the S&P EPAC LargeMidCap over the past 12 months ending June 30, 2015.
  • Similarly, only 17.54% of global equity managers had higher returns than the benchmark during the same period.
  • Over the five-year period, only 4.44% of active international equity funds were able to beat the benchmark, and only 4.20% of active global equity funds and 3.16% of active U.S. equity funds have outpaced the S&P Developed LargeMidCap and the S&P 500, respectively.

Also read:

Rough Q2 for TSX and active managers

Case study: New portfolio for high-earning spouses-to-be