With the twin pressures coming from competitors and the regulator asset managers will increasingly be looking at ways to cut costs, be more competitive and generate more business directly from consumers, with intermediaries and fund supermarkets potentially losing out.
While M&G for example has been quick to say its online service launch is motivated by a desire to serve existing clients more efficiently and cheaper rather than to cut independent advisers or fund supermarkets out of the process, it seems inevitable that some element of that will occur.
A cost conscious, well informed investor would rightly be unimpressed at the prospect of paying 50bps more for a standard active equities fund because an adviser arranged the investment instead of doing it themselves by clicking onto the M&G website.
Whether IFAs and the fund supermarkets will be casualties of the price war remains to be seen but it should give them food for thought.
