Lowes: Platform transparency needed to give investors access to best funds

Most industry participants would agree a worthy objective of RDR would be to help create and maintain a system whereby retail clients receive the best possible advice and are able to access the best possible investment opportunities.

From the perspective of a boutique fund management firm, it is apparent an obvious way of advancing this goal would be to push for transparency and open architecture for all major platform structures for which retail investors are the end customers. Currently, a number of non-open architecture platforms with hidden fees and rebates control a significant share of the IFA-to-retail or direct-to-retail market. The business models used by these platforms act to inhibit the choice available to retail investors, while at the same time ensuring the actively managed funds available to retail inv...