One in six fund shares classes have had their fees changed in the past year, research has found.
Fund research firm Fitz Partners said 17% of share classes have made a change in their fee structure which has impacted their Ongoing Charge Figures (OCF). Of the funds that showed a change, 35% increased the OCF.
The Fitz database used for the research contains around 40,000 share classes.
Fitz found that the retail share classes level of OCF across the bond and equity classes have been more volatile than unbundled and institutional share classes.
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Retail share classes for bond funds showed wider average changes of between a -12bps drop and 7bps rise in their OCFs, whilst the other share class types showed changes between -8bps and +6bps.
Across all equity funds, retail share classes changes in OCFs were +8bps and -10bps.
Hugues Gillibert, Fitz Partners CEO, commented: “While fees are still going down overall it is interesting to note that our research shows institutional share classes, which would be the most competitive when it comes to pricing, having the largest proportionate increase in equity funds OCFs at 9%.
“This could highlight the inflationary pressures that asset managers and service providers alike have been facing, thus forcing them to pass these costs onto the investors through increasing fund fees, thereby increasing OCF levels although. More strikingly, fees for any share class types across equity or bond funds still show higher reductions than increases, which would be a relief for investors”
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