Active Management Verdict: Only 13% of US Large-Cap Funds Beat Benchmarks Over a Decade

The persistence data is unforgiving: fewer than one in seven US large-cap active managers cleared their benchmark over a full decade. The arithmetic is structural rather than cyclical. Index returns over the period have been dominated by a narrow cohort of mega-cap technology names, meaning any manager running a diversification or valuation discipline has been penalised by construction. Layer on fees — the debate over whether a 50 basis point expense ratio can be justified in a dividend ETF wrapper is emblematic of the wider pressure — and the compounding drag becomes decisive. The practical consequence is continued asset migration toward low-cost beta and, at the margin, toward concentrated high-conviction vehicles that at least offer differentiated payoff profiles. Notably, high-profile discretionary investors continue to make headline single-name bets, but the aggregate record argues that alpha in US large-cap equities is scarce, expensive to access, and difficult to identify ex ante.