Author name: fpadmin

Boards making progress in tacking ‘natural conflict’ in charging structure. Fund board directors say there is “room for improvement” when disclosing performance fees to investors, despite increased oversight of the practice. Regulators in both Luxembourg and Ireland have tightened governance over funds’ performance-related fees in recent years as questionable structures continue to garner attention. View

Independent board members must look out for investors’ best interests. Independent directors must scrutinise the drivers and impacts of any proposals to raise fund fees, as increases in product charges outstrip cuts, experts say. More funds raised management fees than cut them last year as asset managers responded to growing pressure on margins, according to

Reduction in non-executives ‘could create gap in expertise’, say experts. Asset managers have trimmed the number of independent directors on their fund boards as they wrestle with cost pressures, new research finds. The average number of independent directors per fund board fell 11 percent last year to 2.3, according to research from Fitz Partners, a

‘Wide mix’ of asset managers increased charges in 2024. More funds raised management fees than cut them last year as asset managers responded to growing pressure on margins, new research shows. View Article Here

Hugues Gillibert, chief executive of Fitz Partners, a specialist fee research firm, said some asset managers had faced “issues” when assessing tiered charging structures, which automatically reduced management fees as assets rose. This challenge was particularly felt by companies with a global operating model where funds’ resources were shared across the firm, which might benefit

Hugues Gillibert, chief executive of Fitz Partners, said directors evaluating a fee waiver should assess its rationale, as well as its scale and duration. The size of the fee waiver must be worth the flows it might attract, Gillibert said, adding that directors should also question if the potential gains in assets would remain when

Hugues Gillibert, chief executive of Fitz Partners, which provides fee analysis to fund boards, does not think governance has been undervalued so far, but says complacency could change this. He says resources allocated to some of the functions related to fund governance have been “under review in the UK for the last year or so” as firms

Average annual ongoing charges of money market Ucits funds rose from 0.1 per cent in 2021 to 0.16 per cent in 2023, according to data in the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s Factbook 2024. The funds’ charges had previously fallen from 0.17 per cent, the data shows. Hugues Gillibert, chief executive officer of Fitz