Meet with PWL Capital: https://pages.pwlcapital.com/en-ca/contact-us?utm_source=content&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=rationalreminder_yt Avoid Online Scams https://pwlcapital.com/stay-safe-online/ Ben Felix or any PWL employee will never reach out to you on social media platforms or WhatsApp to give financial advice. These are scammers trying to commit fraud. What if the decades-long debate between active and passive investing wasn’t really a debate—but a data problem? In this episode, Ben Felix and Cameron Passmore are joined by Tim Edwards, Managing Director and Global Head of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, for a deep dive into the SPIVA Scorecard—the industry’s most enduring and data-driven comparison of active versus passive investing. Tim explains how SPIVA has evolved over 25 years, why survivorship bias matters more than most investors realize, and what the data consistently shows across markets: most active funds underperform their benchmarks—especially over longer time horizons. The conversation goes beyond the headline results, exploring persistence (or lack thereof) in manager performance, why bond funds don’t escape the same fate, and whether combining active funds improves outcomes (spoiler: not really). They also tackle common critiques of indexing, including index rebalancing costs, IPO inclusion concerns, and the role of index funds in market concentration. Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:03:50 Describing the SPIVA Report 0:07:41 How they make sure that the SPIVA data are not biased in favour of indexing 0:11:34 The main points that consistently come out of the SPIVA research 0:17:42 The portion of active funds that typically survive over long periods of time 0:26:00 How active funds perform in bad years for the stock market 0:28:30 The portion of hypothetical multi-asset portfolios constructed from active funds that outperform index benchmarks 0:32:32 What has surprised Tim in a past SPIVA report 0:36:40 What Tim and S&P DJI think about the paper where JFE suggests that when indexes rebalance in response to stock market composition changes, they impose an implicit performance drag 0:42:35 Whether it ever make sense to create a “sleepy” index reflecting the suggestions of this research 0:44:55 How the S&P DJI handle the inclusion of recent IPO shares in its indices 0:53:26 How the current U.S. market concentration compares to U.S. market history 1:00:05 The historical relationship between S&P 500 concentration and returns? 1:03:54 The main lessons from history about market concentration for index investors today 1:08:42 Historically, whether investors have benefitted from waiting for a further drop in the S&P 500 before entering the market 1:12:16 If Tim had to pick one, what his favourite S&P DJI index is and why 1:14:29 Tim defines success in his life Links: Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/ Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore