Janus Henderson Investors to reduce fees on four funds
Assessment of value report
Janus Henderson Investors (JHI) has committed to reducing fees on four of its funds by the end of September, the firm said in its value assessment report.
JHI said its £55m Global Financials, £198m Index-Linked Bond, £61m Institutional UK Gilt and £75m Institutional Long-Dated Gilt funds would see reductions to their annual management charges (AMC) as a result of the report's findings.
A spokesperson for JHI said where it deemed funds did not deliver value, "we have often already taken action".
Chair of Henderson Investment Funds Pat Shea noted the firm had introduced new share classes on many funds for investors not linked to an adviser or intermediary last year, meaning those investors were able to escape commission-paying share classes.
"As a result of this project, more than 100,000 retail investors were moved to the new share class and now benefit from reduced charges," Shea explained.
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Further changes to fund charges are now in the offing, with the Global Financials fund, co-managed by Barrington Pitt Miller and John Jordan, seeing the AMC on its ‘I' share class cut to 0.75%, from 1% previously, "as soon as practicable, but… no later than 30 September 2020".
JHI said the reduction for the Class I units would "improve value to investors". "The AMCs and ongoing charges for the fund's other share classes are more consistent with other Janus Henderson funds and other similar share classes in the wider funds market, so it is not proposed to make changes to those classes," the report said.
In addition, the report noted the Index-Linked Bond fund, co-managed by Andrew Mulliner and Bethany Payne, has a higher ongoing charges figure (OCF), at 0.54%, almost twice as high as its actively managed sector peers, at 0.29%.
As a result, JHI said it would reduce the AMC for the fund's main share classes "by an amount to be decided as soon as practicable, but… no later than 30 September 2020".
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The two institutional funds would also see the same fate as the Index-Linked fund for the same reason, JHI said.
A spokesperson for JHI told Investment Week: "We continually review our services and challenge ourselves to deliver improvements that benefit our clients. Where we identify that value is not being delivered we are committed to taking appropriate action.
"We have a consistent, ongoing and long-term approach to delivering value; we see the Value Assessment is an extension to the existing monitoring processes that provide oversight into how funds are managed."
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