Only one in three Canadians are familiar with index funds, according to an Angus Reid poll commissioned by online bank ING Direct.

The poll, conducted in May, explored Canadians’ knowledge of index funds and their investment choices for the long term.

According to the poll, 6% of Canadians say they are very familiar with index funds, while another 27% are only somewhat familiar.

Of those who do not invest in index funds, 32% said it was because they didn’t know enough about them.

“Studies have shown that the majority of actively managed funds can’t consistently outperform the same indexes they benchmark themselves against,” says Peter Aceto, president & CEO at ING Direct Canada.

“Investing does not need to be complicated. Diversifying and investing regularly with realistic expectations is a solid financial strategy,” says Aceto.

Angus Reid conducted the poll from May 7 to 10 as an online survey among 1,005 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error – which measures sampling variability – is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Canada.

IE