Chella, if you're referencing the Magellan Global Fund's performance, then I'd suggest it can be helpful to ensure one is comparing apples with apples. Magellan predominantly invest in the equity of what could be termed "quality" businesses, but they charge you a very high base fee and a performance fee over the broad MSCI World index for doing so. You could also invest in Quality global businesses via a low fee "Quality" ETF which screens the market for certain quality factor attibutes, like van Eck's QUAL, which has been listed since 2014.
https://www.vaneck.com.au/etf/equity/qual/snapshot/It is one of a few such vehicles out there, but I highlight it because it has the longest track record. The QUAL ETF has outperformed the Magellan fund since its inception, and this is not a short period of time (almost 7 years).
You could well ask, why has something like QUAL beaten Magellan over every time period since inception, despite Magellan being full of bright and diligent people and running a more concentrated "best ideas" strategy? And the answer is simple...Magellan eat up all of their "idiosyncratic" or skill-based alpha (and more) in fees...leaving them with just a portion of their factor alpha intact, so when you compare them to their primary performance driver i.e. the quality factor, they underperform on a post fees basis. Their base fee is already very high...it could be argued that if they're going to charge a performance fee, it should be over the quality index, not over the broad MSCI. The smart beta ETFs out there charge a small fraction of Magellan's base fee, with no performance fee. High fees do count over the long run...those who pay them end up poorer...and those who get away with charging them end up very rich (Hamish et al). Good luck to them I say, it's a free market and they're not breakign any laws. But unfortunately financial services is a confusing market for many consumers, and I just wonder whether all consumers are aware of what they're paying for and what they're getting in return.
(20min delay)