Even Warren Buffett is no match for the S&P 500

Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A BRK.B stock over the past 20 years has almost precisely equaled the return of the S&P 500 SPX. Let that sink in for a minute. Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO, Warren Buffett, widely considered to be the most successful investor alive today, has merely matched the market’s return over the past two decades.

The fundamental question this raises for investors is how long we should give a manager the benefit of the doubt when failing to beat the market. All of us can readily agree that even the best advisers will…