Okay, since we're not linking to any studies backing up our statements, I decided to look at the historical performance of the funds offered by my company. Ther

Okay, since we're not linking to any studies backing up our statements, I decided to look at the historical performance of the funds offered by my company. There are currently 40 funds available. The best performing index fund is returning around 11%, with a 0.15% expense ratio. This 11% return is beating 37 of the 40 funds. When you factor in expense ratios, it's beating all of the competing 39 funds, many by a wide, wide margin. Now obviously, this is a small sample. There are many funds out there that might be doing better. And yes, my timeframe is short; evaluating returns on a single year (especially a bull year like 2013) is foolish. But so is making generalizations about fund performance. And here are some links to support the notion that relying on actively managed funds is counterproductive: http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/articles/2012/10/12/study-active-funds-consistently-fail-to-beat-benchmarks http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/... http://business.time.com/2012/02/24/index-funds-win-again-this-time-by-a-landslide/ http://business.time.com/2012/02/24/index-funds-win-again-th... http://us.spindices.com/resource-center/thought-leadership/spiva/ http://us.spindices.com/resource-center/thought-leadership/s...