Cofunds has said distributors will be able to use their buying power to the benefit of their clients following the announcement by HM Revenue & Customs that rebates from asset managers will be taxed.
The platform’s director of marketing Verona Smith said it would continue to support advisers which negotiated a discount in the form of a cash or unit rebate but expected the bigger trend to be the emergence of new lower cost, “cleaner” share classes.
“We have always had a consistent position in striving to get the best outcome for our clients - if this is in the form of the lowest priced or preferential share class, then we will push for this,” Ms Smith said.
“In addition, we make a point of not getting in the way of intermediaries negotiating directly with fund managers, and we’ll continue with this approach.”
The platform, which has £50bn in assets under administration, already has more than 2,700 clean share classes available after stating its intention to use them in 2011.
“In terms of our overall positioning for clean share classes, we’re in a very good shape,” Ms Smith said.
“We pinned our colours to the mast back in September 2011 when we signalled to the market that we wanted to move to a clean share class, which we have successfully done.
“We’re therefore in a very good position when compared to those platforms which haven’t moved to clean share classes and welcome those now following us in the new world.”
