Investing
Barclays platform challenges Hargreaves with 0.35% AMC
Barclays Stockbrokers has revealed its clean pricing structure, introducing a platform charge of 0.35% as it becomes the latest platform to undercut Hargreaves Lansdown’s headline charges.
Barclays, which is applying the 0.35% fee to all clients with up to £500,000 in assets, and waiving the fee for users with larger pots, has also said it will start to ‘pro-actively’ convert bundled share classes to clean from March next year.
The new pricing structure means Barclays has undercut Hargreaves’ headline charges after the platform giant earlier this month announced a 0.45% average management charge (AMC) for clients with up to £250,000.
Last week Fidelity, another major player in the space, announced a 0.35% AMC for clients with £250,000 or less, falling to 0.2% for clients with between £250,000 and £1m.
Barclays’ structure includes a flat minimum AMC charge of £35 a year, which it said would impact smaller clients with under £4,000 on the platform and may see them “pay more”.
Barclays is also waiving fees to buy and sell funds, and making changes to its wrapper charges.
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Barclays said from 1 March 2014, all Barclays Stockbrokers ISA clients will pay a standard investment ISA administration fee of £30 plus VAT per annum.
However, this ISA administration fee continues to be waived where clients are fully invested in funds.
Elsewhere, the group has also cut its dealing charges for trading stocks and other securities by £1 for each band.
In terms of fund deals, Barclays said it had secured average prices of 0.68% on the new clean share classes, higher than the 65bps Hargreaves has secured across its range of available funds.
Alastair Thaw, director of Barclays Stockbrokers, said: “We are introducing what we believe to be a clear, simple and fair RDR funds pricing structure.
“The Retail Distribution Review has encouraged a more competitive marketplace, however we recognise that the changes can be confusing. Investors need clear and simple information about the price they are paying and we have designed our pricing structure with clarity, simplicity and fairness at its heart.”