Investment Association sets out plan to end fund performance confusion

The Investment Association (IA) has set out plans to identify a 'primary' share class for the purpose of comparing fund performance, as the number available to investors multiplies rapidly post-RDR.

With the move to clean pricing having led to a proliferation in the number of share classes, as some providers offer different share classes to different distributors, the IA has worked with Morningstar, Financial Express and Lipper to provide a consistent basis for comparison. The primary share class will be the highest-charging unbundled share class which is freely available to the retail market via third party distributors, the IA said. The date on which performance data will be calculated based solely on this share class will be dependent on a "collection and test period", it adde...