Are ASX ETFs killing the managed fund?

There has certainly been both winners and losers from the rise we have seen over the past decade or two of the exchange-traded fund (ETF). Although ETFs are now commonplace, there was a time when the idea didn’t even exist. Before the rise of the ETF, this space was almost exclusively occupied by managed funds (also called mutual funds), with the odd Listed Investment Company (LIC) thrown in. A managed fund differs from an exchange-traded fund in that it is not traded on a stock exchange. Instead, these funds trade outside the share market. Investors can usually only buy, sell or trade managed fund units outside of market hours. And this is a laborious task too, with the fund manager having to manage the pricing, and trading, of…