Each year, these advisors ... are paid staggering sums of money—perhaps $300 billion or more—for their presumed ability to add value for their investors. But in the stock market, the average money manager earns, yes, average returns before all of their costs. What else is new? But after their advisory fees, trading commissions, tax inefficiency and all their marketing expenses and operating costs, the 'zero-sum game' they play becomes a 'loser's game'—a game that, in the aggregate, inevitably subtracts value from their clients' wealth. There is no mathematical way around that.

If you own mutual funds, get out your pen and paper and write to their CEOs and their independent directors, demanding that they step up to the plate on corporate governance issues.