Gosling's Grouse: Pure and simple

Pure and simple

The asset management industry must feel like it is under the same kind of onslaught which the life industry faced at the end of the last century.

The latest to join the battle is the Consumer Panel, which has said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should consider making fund groups overhaul charging structures in a “radical” change to standard industry practice. In its recent review of retail fund charges, the Panel said the retail industry enjoys “largely unchallenged, the potential to exploit consumer behaviour, product structure complexity and the lack of cost transparency”. Among its proposed ideas for reform is the replacement of all fund costs with a single investment management charge, representing the only cost char...