Fund managers who switch firm or set up their own company experience a slight initial gain in performance before it peters out, according to research that challenges star stockpickers to prove their worth.
Those fund managers who transferred to a different business delivered twice the alpha — outperformance compared with a benchmark or index — in the first three years of establishing a new fund, according to data provider Morningstar.
But over five years or more, individual fund managers’ performance slid below their previous record, Morningstar said. On average they outperformed the new management on their old funds by 52 basis points each year, but this varied significantly across the sample.