The investment world is full of attempts to milk us for fees and capital. But how is it done? Simply take a humdrum product, dress it up in exciting clothes, and sell the dream.

Is your active fund secretly tracking an index? Is your favourite meme stock hiding faltering performance with gimmicks? Who’s actually paying for that champagne lunch with your financial advisor?

Today, we coin a new term for this phenomenon: Dreamwashing.

And in today’s Dumb Question of the Week: Do you need a financial advisor?

Selected links

• Closet indexing indicators and investor outcomes (ESMA)
• Champers and safaris: the secret diary of a St James’s Place adviser (The Times)
• SEC Charges Goldman Sachs Asset Management for Failing to Follow its Policies Involving ESG Investments

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