Of the 2,991 funds active 10 years ago, 1,096 were either liquidated (635) or have merged (461). The median length of time the closed funds were open was 10 years.
The data indicates, however, that the number of funds being closed has slowed considerably, having peaked in 2006.
Since 2012, the trend has also been to merge rather than liquidate; with 2014/15 the first period where the number of funds that merged was greater than those entering liquidation.
Of the 1,198 funds that are still active, the variety of fund types is broad. Equity and mixed-asset funds, however, have proven most resilient/popular.
In a world of low inflation and slow growth it is likely these two types of funds will remain in demand by most investors.
