FundsNetwork has introduced a phased conversion to help adviser including the launch of an enhanced switching function, Jon Everill has said.
The head of advisory services for FundsNetwork said that the provider’s aim was to “support advisers as much as possible in the lead-up to 2016.”
This includes the launch of an enhanced switching facility online. It includes a ‘make-me-clean’ function, which allows firms to move bundled or closed funds within client accounts to the equivalent clean share class. The tool allows advisers to perform multiple switches within an account and on more than one account at the same time.
FundsNetwork has also developed a phased approach to assist adviser firms in ensuring their clients’ investments are held in clean share classes ahead of the April 2016 deadline.
The platform provider said it had carried out a survey that showed one in two adviser firms continue to feel confused about what the changes mean and what they need to do to prepare their business.
Last year, the FCA in its PS13/1 policy paper, banned platforms from retaining rebates on new business from April 2014.
These rebates, a feature of bundled share classes, are paid by fund providers to platforms to support the payment of commission and the platforms’ service charges.
From April 2016, this ban will extend to all existing business under the so-called ‘sunset clause’, necessitating a move to clean share classes.
Adviser view
Simon Carter, a partner at Carter Dawes in Honiton in Devon, said: “We are long term users of the FundsNetwork platform and had their assistance from switching from a legacy trail model to fees. This conversion has been in the last step and in total the whole thing took five months.”
