A British investment industry trade association is proposing a framework for disclosing investment costs and charges across various types of investment and pension products.
The Investment Association has published a discussion paper on the disclosure of costs and charges, which outlines its approach. In addition to setting out its views on disclosing implicit and explicit costs to investors; it also presents a new methodology for calculating and reporting portfolio turnover rates, which proposes that investors be told whether that rate is high, medium or low for a fund (relative to other similar funds, and how this relates to the transaction costs).
The paper details a framework and template for the disclosure of charges and transaction costs that, it says, is intended as a foundation for disclosure to be used in forthcoming regulation in this area in the UK and Europe. Among other things, it recommends that contingent charges such as performance fees, and one-time costs, should be disclosed separately from ongoing charges; that transaction cost disclosure should clearly distinguish between future estimates and historic reporting; and, that charges and transaction costs should be separately identifiable, even if an all-in total is required.
“The Investment Association is setting out the building blocks for good disclosure in the context of a complex and evolving domestic and European regulatory landscape,” said Daniel Godfrey, CEO of The Investment Association.
“The industry is working with government and regulators to build a framework for comprehensive, meaningful and consistent information that that can be made available across the whole investment and pensions market for the end investor,” he added.