True and fair?
Asset managers and investment advisers stand accused of complicity in lining their pockets at the expense of unwary and helpless investors. One asset manager (now an adviser) who has never stood by and has always shouted for truth and fairness is Alan Miller, together with his wife Gina (she of the Brexit court case), Alan has been a consistent force for good , educating many of us in where change needs to happen.
Here is a short press release from Alan and Gina’s True and Fair Campaign which links to a long exegesis of the Asset Management Market Study. I take one paragraph from the longer document which sums up Alan and Gina’s generosity of thought and precision of expression.
A Summary of the FCA’s Report Revealing Shoddy Practices in the UK Investment and Pension Industry
The 208 page FCA paper is a comprehensive and informed analysis of the numerous dubious practices that have dogged the UK fund management industry for decades.
An industry that has lost its moral compass and the principle of putting customers first.
The FCA has rightly exposed:
- Lack of price competition in active funds
- Failure to pass on economies of scale
- Hidden transaction costs
- £109 bn of closet index funds
- Near useless broker ‘buy lists’
- The crucial importance of increased transparency and standardisation of costs and charges
- The 0.6% pa under-performance of active funds
- Numerous conflicts of interest operating within fund managers, pension consultants and pension trustees that result in detrimental outcomes for prudent, hard-working savers and investors.
The report clearly exposes the Investment Association (IA) recent paper “Hidden Fund Fees: The Loch Ness Monster of Investments?” for what it is – a shamefully amateurish and wholly misleading piece of industry propaganda, not worth the paper it is printed on.
Read SCM’s summary and added analysis of various major UK companies – the company that shows how well it’s fund is doing against just cash even when it actually targets cash +5% pa or the household name UK index tracker charging 1% pa or the major company earning millions of pounds risk-free from box profits.
SCM / True and Fair Campaign Summary Review of the FCA’s Report into UK Asset Management
