Fidelity International has bought Cavendish Online in a move that will bring more than 30,000 new customers and £900m of assets to its platform.
The fund house announced yesterday (October 5) it had bought the low-cost direct to consumer platform to form part of its own D2C platform, Personal Investing.
Customers of Cavendish will benefit from access to Fidelity’s investment and pension platform, including its entire range of funds, shares, investment trusts and ETFs.
They will see no immediate changes to their costs, as Fidelity pledged to retain their current platform charges for at least 12 months from the transaction date.
Cavendish currently charges 0.25 per cent for accounts valued at less than £200,000 and 0.2 per cent for those with a larger sum of assets.
Fidelity’s charges are slightly more expensive for those with smaller assets, at 0.35 per cent for accounts below £250,000 and 0.2 per cent for those above.
Cavendish’s platform is currently powered by Fidelity’s FundsNetwork, meaning customers will not have to transfer assets from one platform to another, they will not experience any time out of the market and their account details will remain the same.
Former Cavendish customers will have access to Fidelity’s online guidance services, its range of investment tools, market news, daily insights and in-depth analysis as well as Fidelity’s free iOS and Android apps to check their investments on the go.
Stuart Welch, global head of personal investing and advisory at Fidelity International, said: “I want to warmly welcome Cavendish customers to Fidelity Personal Investing’s platform and I hope they will enjoy the enhanced benefits of our service.
“With our shared beliefs and values, this acquisition really felt like a natural fit as Fidelity’s FundsNetwork platform was already powering their investments, so I am confident this will be a straightforward transition for Cavendish customers.”
Ian Williams, managing director of Cavendish Online, said Fidelity provided “excellent service and value” and was “very well placed” to administer their customers’ investments for the long term.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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