The global asset management industry is a multi-trillion-dollar business. In Singapore alone, assets under management are worth around S$4.7 trillion. But just how good are these professionals who manage other people’s money? Some money managers are very good at what they do. Some are unlucky. Then we have those who just don’t try hard enough. And there are some who, to put it bluntly, are simply not up to scratch. It is not easy to decide which category a fund manager belongs to, especially if we do not have a long enough track record to judge their performance on. Past performance is no guide Let’s say a fund manager has delivered a 20 per cent annual return over a 25-year period. And over the same time span, an appropriate benchmark such as the Straits Times Index has returned 7 per cent. Does that suggest the money manager has been outstanding?...