Investing Insights

Are you getting the most out of your fund’s performance? Over the past 10 years, the average dollar invested in US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds earned 1.2% less per year than what those funds returned during the same period. That’s the top-line finding in this year’s Mind the Gap study, which aims to address the question of where investors succeeded in capturing most of their funds’ returns, and where they fell short. Jeff Ptak, a managing director for Morningstar Research Services, breaks down the takeaways from the report and what investors can do if they want to avoid leaving money on the table.Mind the Gap US 2025On this episode:00:52 How does the report measure the difference between investor returns and total returns?02:16 How does the latest research compare with previous years? Is the “gap” going away?02:58 This difference in investor returns and total returns doesn’t just come from people failing to time the market. What else might cause the gap?04:29 Where have investors been able to captu