Focus: Dawn of a new age?

Yet whether the demand filters into trackers or ETFs, and whether they take 5 per cent or 20 per cent of the market over the coming decade, the US experience suggests passive products are set to rise when the RDR levels the playing field with active management.

"Will the adviser wake up to the power of low-cost index investing?" asks Mr Butler. "Almost certainly. To what extent? I don’t know. There’s such a vested interest in not seeing them do well."