JB Beckett: The rise and fall of the annual management charge

'Existential moment'

The annual management charge (AMC), the perennial product charge for conducting a mutual fund business in the UK ever since funds became unitised, is creaking with age.

It has faced waves of exchange-traded funds, low-cost indexation and the glare of cost transparency and assessment of value. Now, after years in the doldrums, investment trusts have a reporting cost advantage over OEICs. To think of a world without the AMC might be considered tantamount to a mid-life crisis; however, is now the time time let the '%' AMC go? The TV seriesThe Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is based on a book first published in 1975, and became the embodiment of the aging middle manager Reggie suffering a mid-life crisis. The show featured anti-hero Reginald Io...