The JPMorgan Emerging Markets trust has become the latest investment company to remove its performance fee in the face of rising investor distaste for such charges.
The trust, which is managed by Austin Forey, announced today it would remove the fee, which was 10 per cent of the net asset value (Nav) outperformance of its benchmark, on June 30 and leave its annual management fee unchanged.
The tiered annual fee is charged at 1 per cent on all assets up to £800m, dropping to 0.75 per cent for assets above that level.
Following the change, the trust’s board said it “believes that the company’s fee arrangements are now the most competitive in its immediate peer group of global emerging equity investment trusts”.
The number of investment trusts changing their fee structures has surged in recent years, with analysis from brokers Winterflood Securities finding 36 trusts changed fee structure in 2014, with nine removing their performance fee.
However, the broker estimated at the start of 2015 that “around 49 per cent” of investment trusts still charge a fee for performance.
