It’s easy to imagine CIBC’s financial advisors recommending their firm’s actively managed funds. 

They charge higher fees than their indexed, passively managed products.  Higher fund costs are better for banks, but not for investors. 

That said, CIBC’s standard indexes are expensive, carrying costs exceeding 1% each year.

Does this mean they underperform CIBC’s actively managed products?  Embarrassingly for CIBC, they don’t – because their active funds cost even more. 

You can read about it in my article for the Globe and Mail.