In a review of long-term performance the firm found closed-end funds outperformed open-ended funds by a "healthy margin" in eight out of nine regional sectors.
Investment trusts also beat the relevant benchmarks in seven of the nine sectors, while unit trusts underperformed their benchmarks in all nine sectors.
The report said: "Looking forward to next year [post-RDR] the levelling of the playing field represents a golden opportunity for the investment trust sector. Proven track records, lower total expense ratios, the ability to focus on managing money rather than be distracted by managing inflows/redemptions, the ability of income funds to use revenue reserves to smooth out dividend payments, the potential for NAV enhancements through gearing, buybacks and share issuance all give the sector strong competitive advantages."
Despite a superior performance record over the long-term and over most timescales, growth of the underlying investment trust sector has lagged behind the open-ended sector.
Specifically, the total value of the Oeic and unit trust sector has increased by 142% from £236bn to £571bn in the past 10 years, while the investment trust sector has grown a "more pedestrian" 33% from £68bn to £90.3bn, the report stated.
Collins Stewart focused on sectors where performance data was directly comparable, using IMA statistics for the Oeics and Morningstar data for closed-end funds.
The sectors studied were: Japan, Asia Pacific ex-Japan, Global Emerging, Europe ex-UK, North America, UK All Companies, UK Equity Income and Global Growth.
For a breakdown of the sectors and performance figures, see the full report.
