Henderson Global Investors has pulled out of negotiations to provide discounted clean fee share classes to Standard Life’s platform.
Standard Life has revealed that it has negotiated discounted share classes on 291 funds from 13 groups, but Henderson is not among them in spite of being previously named by the platform as involved in discussions in September last year.
In the press release accompanying the announcement, Standard Life stated: “Henderson has decided to withdraw its previous offer to continue the terms offered to clients through a fund rebate within the clean environment.”
This means the prices previously available to investors through fund rebates would no longer be accessible - effectively pushing Henderson’s fund prices up compared with ‘bundled’ share classes offering rebates.
Stewart Cazier, managing director for distribution at Henderson, said: “It is important to state that, in agreeing terms with platforms, we have decided to only offer one clean share class across UK advisory platforms as we believe we need to offer the intermediaries who use a variety of platforms a level playing field.”
Henderson has already agreed to provide Skandia with three funds for its WealthSelect range on discounted terms: Charlie Awdry’s China Opportunities fund, John Bennett’s European fund and Marcus Langlands-Pearse’s Property fund. WealthSelect is aimed at restricted advisers and also forms the basis for Old Mutual’s model portfolios.
