Citigroup Global Markets has agreed to pay $18.3m (£14.5m, €17.1m) to settle charges in the US that it overcharged around 60,000 clients £18m for advice and misplaced contracts over a 15-year period.
UK consumers are being overcharged by advisers who levy a percentage point fee on the value of the assets a client invests, with too much money going into the pockets of wealth managers, according to a new report by Capital Asset Management.
Investors under 40 are willing to pay for expert financial advice, according to the latest study by US consultancy firm Cerulli Associates.
Active managers are under pressure like never before to either justify or cut their fees, but have passive funds been getting an easier ride than they deserve as a consequence?
The FCA has criticised the “weak price competition” among asset managers, attacking actively managed funds for failing to outperform their benchmark once fees have been taken into account.
The financial advisory space is undergoing an enormous amount of flux at the moment.
“One of the biggest challenges I have faced as an adviser in South Africa in the past few years is generating a positive return for clients from international equities,” says Mark Jurgens, head of the Jurgens Group.
Strabens Hall, the international IFA firm with offices in London and Hong Kong, has advised clients against using recognised overseas pension schemes (Rops), warning that the high charges incurred with using the product can often outweigh the tax advantages they offer.
Life companies are calling for more clarity on how new laws covering mutual funds offered for sale within their products in the UAE will work in practice, while asset managers have begun the process of deciding which products to offer.
Advisers are losing business because they are failing to provide clients with a good customer experience, not because other companies are beating them on price, according to Rod Bryson, principal – wealth, long-term savings and insurance at Capgemini Consulting.
Asset managers and distributors in Asia used to split the annual management charge, but over the last couple years the distribution side has been getting more than half. What is a fair split?
Axa has won a landmark court case in the US against investors who accused the French insurer of charging excessive fees on variable annuity products.
