Available solely through FundsNetwork from March, the four new funds will track equity indices in Europe, Japan, Pacific ex-Japan and the emerging markets – the latter of which will have the highest ongoing charge of the range, at 0.27%.
The group already offers three equity index funds focused on the UK, US and World under the Fidelity MoneyBuilder brand, with average bundled TERs of 0.3%.
Subject to regulatory authorisation, these will be rebranded in line with the new products as Fidelity Index UK Fund, Fidelity Index US Fund and Fidelity Index World Fund.
With the exception of Fidelity Index UK Fund, which will continue to be run in-house, the range will be managed by institutional asset manager Geode Capital Management, which has run equity index assets since 2002 and currently looks after $165bn across all regions.
The group said was considering whether to also hand the FTSE All-Share mandate to Geode, taking advantage of its global index expertise, but that was not yet confirmed.
All prefixed with ‘Fidelity Index’, the range of seven funds comprises: UK, tracking the All-Share; US, tracking the S&P 500; while the remainder will track MSCI indices – Japan, Europe ex UK, World, Pacific ex Japan and Emerging Markets.
The full list of corresponding ongoing charges are 0.09%, 0.09%, 0.15%, 0.16%, 0.18%, 0.20% and 0.27%. FundsNetwork will still apply its 25bps annual charge and £45 investor fees.
Head of FundsNetwork Advisory Services Jon Everill said: “We recognise that index funds are increasingly an important part of an advisers’ investment recommendation, particularly in models, and we are pleased to be able to offer this extremely competitively priced range for the benefit of advisers who use our platform.”
Ben Waterhouse, head of UK retail sales, added: “Whilst active management remains at the core of Fidelity’s investment philosophy, we are pleased to be able to meet the growing demand for index funds by bringing Geode’s proven passive capability to the UK market.
“Furthermore, through our partnership with FundsNetwork we are offering advisers access to this range at extremely competitive rates.”
