Fidelity International has reduced the ongoing charges figure (OCF) on five of its multi-asset allocator funds.
The firm yesterday (May 11) lowered the OCF across the funds from 0.25 per cent to 0.2 per cent in a move it said made its funds one of the cheapest in the industry.
The funds affected are the Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator Defensive Fund, the Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator Strategic Fund, the Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator Growth Fund, the Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator Adventurous Fund and the Fidelity Allocator World Fund.
The funds make up around £1bn in assets under management.
John Clougherty, head of wholesale at Fidelity International, said: “For investors who don’t necessarily have time or expertise to do their own investment research, diversified strategies which invest to deliver cost-effective long-term exposure to markets can be an attractive option.
"The Fidelity Multi Asset Allocator range has been designed with this in mind to deliver a simple and low-cost range of products with differing risk appetites."
Fidelity is also in the process of scrapping its variable management fee share classes available to investors in its open-ended funds, saying investor interest had remained limited throughout the fees' lifespan.
The latest move comes as the industry tackles the downward pressure on fund fees. Last summer, Mark Polson, principal at the Lang Cat, predicted a “reckoning” for fund management fees as advisers continued to pressure the rest of the value chain.
Speaking on the FTAdviser podcast, he said the asset management industry had done a “remarkable job” at resisting fee pressure over the past few years but that it “can’t go on forever”.
He said: “In most markets, you expect the person closest to the customer to beat up the rest of the supply chain to preserve their own margin.
“We’ve seen really good pressure on platforms by advisers to get their costs under control.
“The fund management industry has done a creditable effort in resisting...but there will come a reckoning and this is going to change.”
sally.hickey@ft.com
