Jamie Vale, platforms and distribution director, confirmed that trail commission on existing products will remain in place. A distinction will be made between non-adviser top-up payments, on which commission will continue to be paid, and advised top-ups which, instead of receiving a commission, will instead get an increased allocation or a lower fund charging structure.
Talking about trail commission post-RDR, Vale said: “Our understanding is that we will be able to continue to pay commission if the adviser increases the amount invested on a non-advised basis or advice is to not change the current product.”
For collectives and platforms, Legal & General also confirmed that advising a customer to switch collectives is advice to sell one product and buy another one. As a result, a fund switch on a collective will result in trail commission stopping on the funds that are moved after RDR.
Advice to switch from accumulation units to income units (and vice versa) or reduce a holding will not stop trail being paid.
Vale added: “We’ve been running our RDR programme since the end of 2009 and this is the first phase of a timed release process, which will deliver a full RDR compliant product range between now and the end of the year.
“We will be providing further details of how we implement adviser charging on our products and platforms as each phase of the delivery programme goes live.”
