The Scottish Mail on Sunday

MY BLUEPRINT TO CLEAN UP THE INDUSTRY

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FUNDS

BAR any fund from using income in its title if it does not provide an income higher than that from the stock market it is investing in.

REDUCE annual management charges, especially on multi-billion pound funds, to give investors a bigger slice of gains.

MAKE 0.5 per cent a year the norm for charges, not the exception. Investment trusts do it. So should funds.

INTRODUCE tiered charges across the fund management industry, so the overall percentage charge falls the bigger a fund gets.

ALL funds and trusts should publish an overall charge figure that can be directly compared across groups. No wriggle room for manipulati­on.

THE regulator should clamp down further on the unquoted holdings of mainstream investment funds. Ideally, these should only be held by stock market-listed investment trusts.

ALL funds should publish full details of their holdings so that investors can see what companies they are investing in.

PLATFORMS

BAN all exit fees.

GIVE investors detailed notes on why a fund is deemed a best buy – not just glib marketing words.

TELL investors if a platform is receiving any payment for including a fund on its best-buy list.

INCLUDE investment trusts in best-buy lists – Hargreaves Lansdown does not.

DISCLOSE any (platform) director holdings in funds that a platform is recommendi­ng in a best-buy list – and detail any personal buying or selling.

NEIL WOODFORD

WAIVE the fee on Equity Income, backdating it to when fund dealings were suspended.

HARGREAVES LANSDOWN

WAIVE exit fees for anyone wishing to move their money to another platform as a result of the Woodford debacle.

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