A partner at a $221 billion firm outlines how asset managers are sabotaging themselves and their clients — and unveils his plan to fix the industry

The asset management industry is failing its investors by charging high fees and emphasizing the short term, among other issues, said Stuart Dunbar in a recent interview with Business Insider. 

Dunbar, a partner at Baillie Gifford, a $221 billion Scottish investment manager, said the outlook has never been worse for asset managers. 

"We’re in an industry which has been getting worse for 40 years rather than getting better," he said, as managers forget their basic purpose – to allocate capital wisely – and, as a result, fail to deliver good value to their clients. That's led to regulatory and fee pressures that show few signs of abating. 

See more: The inside story of how an old-school Scottish firm became an early investor in many of Silicon Valley's most prized unicorns, and made a killing in the process 

"The industry charges too much. It’s a good thing that there’s fee pressure because it’s bringing about a bit of a reality check," Dunbar said. "At the moment, the profitability of the asset management industry is still too high."

Money has fled actively-managed strategies in favor of cheaper, and often better-performing, passive strategies. One industry analyst speculated that 2019 could see the first no-fee exchange-traded-fund. 

"There is a point at which cheap becomes counterproductive, but in fairness, we’re not there," Dunbar said. "There is a danger that it overshoots and becomes about cost, not about quality or value for money." 

He said his firm criticizes the asset management industry in an effort to drive change. Managers looking to truly serve their clients would focus on the long term, ignore benchmarks, incentivize staff appropriately, and educate investors. 

"I think the industry has really ducked the client education part," he said. "How do we get away from what the majority of people now think investment is, which is how can we be smarter than the market for the next three weeks? ... The reason I think many investment companies can’t do that is they’re not structured to take more than a one-year view on the investments they make." 

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