Time to come clean

Time to come clean

It has been a long time coming, but the fund industry is now 18 months into the world of unbundled pricing.

The new world – with no trail commission or platform fees bundled together inside the fund price – is cleaner and clearer, and is likely to push down prices ultimately: though an ongoing charges figure of under 1% a year is arguably not that much to pay for an equity fund. The Retail Distribution Review (RDR) was, of course, about altering the way advice is paid for by end investors, and unbundling of fees was a key part of that, with many clients previously thinking their advice was ‘free’. Now, funds have a clean price, advisers have a fee, and so do platforms, all of which is much ...