A prominent cartoonist publicly joined the ranks of Jack-Bogle-esque haters of actively managed mutual funds. In this morning's Wall Street Journal, Karen Damato writes about Dilbert creator Scott Adams' long-running dislike of active fund management, which he sees as a "scam."

One of the Dilbert characters, Dogbert, launched a mutual fund in the strip 13 years ago. According to Dogbert, the fund was for people too dumb to know about cheap index funds, and he advertised the fund on TV as being managed by monkeys, because:

Studies have shown that monkeys can pick stocks better than most professionals. That's why the Dogbert Mutual Fund employs only monkeys. Yes, our fees are high, but I don't apologize for hiring the best.

Adams also doesn't use an advisor (after suffering during the 2000-2002 bear market), and he's still worried about ETFs, too.

"I am uneasy with anything that is complicated -- and ETFs are a little more complicated than I am comfortable with," Adams told the WSJ.

Adams has most of his portfolio invested in individual municipal bonds. For equities, however, about 20 percent of his portfolio is in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and five percent is in the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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