Whitechurch Securities have cut the fees on its range of model portfolios.
The Bristol-based firm are to charge a management fee of 0.1 per cent to clients who hold the portfolios directly with the company, and 0.2 per cent for clients who own the portfolios via an external platform.
Those charging levels exclude VAT, which must also be paid.
The company said this represents a 0.35 per cent reduction in the fees.
The portfolios it runs are a combination of passive and active funds and are grouped into five risk strategies.
In addition to holding the portfolios directly with Whitechurch, the products are available via Axa Elevate, Aviva, Standard Life, Zurich and James Hay.
Gavin Haynes, managing director of Whitechurch said: "These portfolios are designed to be low cost solutions for investors, for whom minimising charges are of paramount importance. But the view that the 'cheapest option is always best' can be a blinkered one. In reality it comes down to value over price.
"Within these portfolio we invest up to 20 per cent in active funds to provide an added level of diversification that cannot be achieved by simply investing in passive funds. It has been our experience that using only passive funds restricts the diversification options.
"In order to provide the optimum mix of funds our investment team believes that there is a place for both styles of investing (passive and active) to be considered when building a portfolio."
Paul Stocks, financial services director at the firm of Dobson and Hodge in Doncaster, said he tends not to use model portfolios, because he feels the products have such a wide range of clients that the service is not bespoke enough, instead his firm tends to construct the portfolios for clients.
david.thorpe@ft.com
