The head of Axa Wealth’s Elevate platform has told fund managers that it expects to have access to any new cut-price share classes issued to other platforms.
Skandia and Standard Life are in negotiations with fund managers to secure new share classes with lower fees than current ‘clean fee’ shares, to reflect the removal of rebates.
David Thompson, Axa Elevate managing director, said: “As and when fund managers make new enhanced clean share classes available we would expect to provide access to these through Elevate to ensure we continue to provide clients with the best possible value in the most simple and transparent way possible.
“We will always seek to offer the best value for our clients through clean and transparent pricing.”
He added that the tax on rebates announced by HM Revenue & Customs last month would “sounds the death knell for old fashioned business models”.
“The industry should be embracing transparency, not seeking to muddy the waters with further complexity,” Mr Thompson said.
His comments back up those made by wrap platforms, including Nucleus, Novia and Transact, which have warned that exclusive deals between individual platforms and fund managers are unlikely to gain traction because fund providers are concerned about upsetting other distributors.
