Ask the average person and they’d probably assume a balanced portfolio was split half and half between growth and defensive assets. In the financial world, there’s a little more flexibility in the definition.

The ‘active versus passive’ debate in funds management is a guaranteed space filler in the financial media, but it would help the general public if those making the comparisons got their facts straight.

Take the default investment option at many of the industry super funds and when you hit a specific age (i.e. 50, 55, 60) your asset allocation will automatically become more conservative.

Remember their ‘compare the pair’ ads where industry super funds made a big fuss about fees? After ASIC's changes to fee disclosure, these industry super funds no longer look as competitive as they did on fees.