Advisers who use the Old Mutual Wealth platform will be able to reduce fees for some clients after the company launched “family linking” for its clients.
The feature means that various members of the same family will be able to pool their different portfolios, and have the fee calculated as if it were one portfolio, and so pay a lower fee under the tiered fee structure.
For example, a client with £500,000 who has a family member with £500,000, will be able to have it treated as one portfolio, and pay the fee on the £1m, which is 0.15 per cent, instead of 0.25 per cent, which is the fee on £500,000 of assets.
Mike Barrett, of consultancy firm the Lang Cat, said while some platforms offer this family linking service between spouses, he believes Old Mutual Wealth is the only platform that offers it to the wider family.
He said: “I believe most platforms will offer spousal linking, but not all will offer the wider family group. Anything that reduces the cost of investing for clients is to be applauded and encouraged, so well done Quilter.”
There is no minimum investment level and no limit on the number of family members that can be linked.
The move comes alongside a revamp of the platform’s pricing structure, with the previous five tiers of pricing replaced to four (see below).
All of the changes take effect from April.
Steven Levin, chief executive of the Old Mutual Wealth platform, said: “The ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ which is seeing trillions pass between generations over the next 30 years has been well documented.
"We are seeing more advisers using our platform to support wider family units and providing advice that spans generations. And it is our duty to encourage intergenerational planning, allowing advisers to offer savings to those families.
“Our new platform technology will deliver a number of efficiencies and I am delighted to be able to share these savings with customers. The new technology has great potential and we plan to innovate further in collaboration with our customers and their advisers.”
The first group of clients will be migrated to the new version of the platform this coming weekend (22/23 February).
Current charge bands | Current charge |
| New charge bands | New charge |
First £25,000 | 0.50% |
| First £25,000 | 0.50% |
From £25,000 to £100,000 | 0.35% |
| From £25,000 to £250,000 | 0.30% |
From £100,000 to £500,000 | 0.30% |
| From £250,000 to £750,000 | 0.25% |
From £500,000 to £1m | 0.25% |
| More than £750,000 | 0.15% |
More than £1m | 0.15% |
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david.thorpe@ft.com
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