Active management fees remain 'resilient' while passives slash prices

Cut by only 8%

Global active equity management fees for the largest investors have managed to withstand growing pricing pressures in the last few years, according to research by bfinance.

In its report entitled Investment Management Fees: New Savings and Challenges, the investment consultant found global active equity fees for institutional investors had fallen by a "meaningful" 8% since 2010. Average fees quoted by global equity managers have decreased from 62bps between 2006-2009 to 57bps between 2015-2017, while some firms were able to negotiate an average discount of 12%, reaching as high as 46%. But this reduction was significantly less than in other sectors such as smart-beta, where fees were down 25%, and low volatility strategies, which were 24% lower. The median ...