What Does Passive Management Actually Mean?

There are many misconceptions about what passive management really means, as the term passive doesn't provide an accurate description of the strategy. So, I thought it worthwhile to describe the differences between active management and passive management. Let's begin by defining the two conflicting theories.

Active Management Active management holds that the markets are inefficient. Thus, smart people working diligently can discover which stocks are undervalued and buy them. And, they can discover which stocks are overvalued and avoid them (or even sell them short). That's the art of stock selection.

Active investors also believe they can anticipate when the bull is going to enter the arena and buy stocks ahead of the rally (or avoid stocks before the bear emerges from hibernation). This is the art of market timing. Stock selection and market timing combine to form active management.

Passive Management Passive management means believing that markets are highly efficient. In turn, this means the market price of a security is the best estimate of the right price, and efforts to outperform are unlikely to prove productive after the expenses of the efforts. Thus, the winning strategy is to focus on:

• Asset allocation, which defines the amount and types of risk you take
• Fund construction
• Costs
• Tax efficiency
• Building globally diversified portfolios that minimize (if not eliminate) the taking of idiosyncratic, uncompensated risks

• Do-it-yourselfers who buy and sell individual stocks and/or shift their asset allocations based on their views about the overall market, sectors, countries or regions
• Delegators who hire advisors or money managers to engage in these activities for them

It's important to note that active investors can also do these things. However, they use active strategies to implement their IPS. So, if you buy and hold an actively managed fund, you're not a passive investor. You're being passive, but the manager is active. For you to be passive, both you and your investments must be passive.

One thing that distinguishes passive management from active management is that passive investors don't take uncompensated risks. They invest in asset classes, not individual stocks, sector funds or individual country funds. And they don't engage in market timing activities. However, they do rebalance, because failing to do so results in the loss of control over the risk of the portfolio. So, passive investing doesn't mean buy, hold and forget it. It means buy hold and rebalance. But it means even more than that.

For taxable accounts, passive investors also harvest losses for tax purposes whenever they exceed stated levels. So, buy-and-hold should really be called buy, hold, rebalance and tax manage throughout the year (not just at year-end). However, we're not done yet.

Since an investment plan is based on assumptions, passive investors need to re-evaluate their asset allocation decisions whenever any of their assumptions have changed. For example, a large inheritance will cause the need to take risk to fall, allowing you to take less equity risk. Of course, it may also increase your ability (or even willingness) to take risk. Numerous events could cause shifts as well:

• A birth or death in the family
• A marriage or divorce
• A change in job status
• A disability

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