Wall Street Fees Wipe Out $2.5 Billion in New York City Pension Gains

NY Times ^ | 04-08-2015 | PATRICK McGEEHAN

[NRx]

The Lenape tribe got a better deal on the sale of Manhattan island than New York City’s pension funds have been getting from Wall Street, according to a new analysis by the city comptroller’s office.

The analysis concluded that, over the past 10 years, the five pension funds have paid more than $2 billion in fees to money managers and have received virtually nothing in return, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer said in an interview on Wednesday.

“We asked a simple question: Are we getting value for the fees we’re paying to Wall Street?” Mr. Stringer said. “The answer, based on this 10-year analysis, is no.”

[NRx]

Actually most index funds are run by computer. That’s one of the reasons they keep their fees and expenses to a fraction of what actively managed funds generally run.

[SVTCobra03]

These people have never heard of index funds and or don't know why long term they almost always outperform actively managed portfolios?

If you are retired and need an income stream, index funds don't perform.

http://investorplace.com/2014/03/dividend-investors-index-funds-wmt-yhoo-brk-a-brk-b/

[SkyPilot]

Wall Street: sucking off of $4 Trillion that was "pumped" by the Fed.

These people are not "investors." Investors used to be about economic growth, industry, and jobs. Today's Wall Street hucksters are nothing more than gambling addicts sitting at the Fed slot machine.

When this bubble bursts, there will be blood on the walls.

[Kid Shelleen]

Whenever conservatives talk about privatizing social security the first things liberals say is that the stock market is too unstable for common folk. Then they go right ahead and invest civil pension money with a bunch of corrupt cronies.

[kearnyirish2]

I see; we do pay less for them, and I didn’t understand why.

Thanks!