S&P Indices Versus Active Reports

S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) research measures the performance of actively managed funds against their index benchmarks worldwide.

SPIVA US Year-End 2025

Over the past 15 years, anywhere from 84.49-97.82% of US actively managed equity funds underperformed their index.

US Equity		% of funds that underperformed benchmark
Fund Category	Comparison Index	1 Yr (%)	3 Yrs (%)	5 Yrs (%)	10 Yrs (%)	15 Yrs (%)
All Large-Cap	S&P 500®	78.78	66.84	88.96	85.59	89.93
All Domestic	S&P Composite 1500®	79.83	80.40	91.47	90.43	93.15
All Multi-Cap	S&P Composite 1500®	68.03	80.20	90.03	89.13	92.25
All Small-Cap	S&P SmallCap 600®	40.65	42.18	62.67	75.95	89.90
All Mid-Cap	S&P MidCap 400®	55.41	62.93	72.32	81.14	84.49
Large-Cap Value	S&P 500 Value	41.30	80.51	83.03	88.45	93.29
Global Funds	S&P World (USD)	75.71	86.94	94.81	93.41	95.63
Large-Cap Growth	S&P 500 Growth	95.51	56.33	95.26	91.67	97.82
Large-Cap Core	S&P 500®	82.51	83.12	85.33	93.40	96.52
Emerging Markets Funds	S&P Emerging Plus	53.02	70.05	73.50	87.70	89.58
International Funds	S&P World Ex-U.S. Index (USD)	63.18	76.38	80.00	89.78	92.70
Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, CRSP. Data as of Dec. 31, 2025. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Table is provided for illustrative purposes.

Advantages of the SPIVA scorecards

Suvivorship Bias Correction

Many funds may merge or be liquidated during a given period. For someone making an investment decision at the beginning of the period, these funds are part of the opportunity set. Unlike other comparison reports, SPIVA scorecards account for the entire opportunity set—not just the survivors—thereby eliminating survivorship bias.

Many mutual fund companies will close underperforming funds or fold them into other funds to create the illusion of good performance.

Then they will advertise the best performers to trick investors into putting money into their funds while hiding the poor performance of the non-survivors.

Fees

SPIVA scorecards use net-of-fees returns for actively managed funds. We ignore any fees—such as costs associated with dealing with client redemptions—that do not directly relate to what a manager charges for their purported skill. This means the SPIVA scorecards tell us the proportion of active managers that were unable to beat their benchmark (through bad luck or due to the absence of skill) after deducting the cost paid by an investor for the manager’s purported skill.

Another common deception by active managers is reporting their gross returns before fees and comparing it to other funds’ returns net of fees. In fact, I have caught a fund manager comparing their gross returns before fees to a Vanguard actively managed fund’s performance after fees. Was this deception or incompetence?

Taxes

“The best way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream.”

Bill Murray

Based on data up to 2024, a greater proportion of actively managed funds consistently underperformed the indices after taxes. So your odds are even worse if you are investing in actively managed funds outside of a tax-advantaged retirement account.

SPIVA Category	Comparison Index	% of Funds Underperforming Benchmark
SPIVA Category	Comparison Index	1-Year (%)	3-Year (%)	5-Year (%)	10-Year (%)	15-Year (%)	20-Year (%)
All Domestic Funds	S&P Composite 1500	78.65	87.65	84.73	89.66	93.19	94.11
All Domestic Funds - After-Tax	S&P Composite 1500 - After-Tax	81.85	92.84	91.56	95.54	97.79	97.73
All Large-Cap Funds	S&P 500	65.24	84.96	76.26	84.34	89.50	91.99
All Large-Cap Funds - After-Tax	S&P 500 - After-Tax	71.08	90.92	88.33	93.53	96.91	96.77
Large-Cap Core Funds	S&P 500	75.89	82.30	80.37	96.62	97.07	93.27
Large-Cap Core Funds - After-Tax	S&P 500 - After-Tax	84.58	90.71	93.15	98.77	99.47	97.86
Sources: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, CRSP. Data as of Dec. 31, 2024. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Table is provided for illustrative purposes.