If your investment manager does not share the same timescales as you, can they really deliver the performance you need?  When the tenures of fund managers are measured in months rather than years, it is no surprise that their strategies do not suit investors, for whom investment horizons may be measured in decades.

It is important for investors to realistic about the investment objectives set by their fund manager who is much more likely to be focused on their CV than most investors would believe.  To the average fund manager, an above average return every three years delivers headline grabbing performance for long enough to draw in more funds and to enable them to feather their nest; that career move will leave most of their investors way behind.  However, a good year followed by a couple of poor years does not give them the type of consistency most of them seek, however well it is marketed.

It is certainly worth being a little cynical when assessing the suitability of a fund or investment management service as moral can be sapped in the face of personnel turnover, often bottom of the list of selection criteria.