Now is the time to fix the cost disclosure rules
AIC calls on members and the wider industry to make their views heard.
The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has renewed its call for an urgent resolution of the issues related to retail investment disclosures, and cost disclosures in particular, which are continuing to cause harm.
The AIC is urging its members and other stakeholders to write to the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury as soon as they are appointed, stressing the urgent need to fix the problem.
Richard Stone, Chief Executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “The issue of misleading cost disclosures is well documented, and the case for reform won cross-party support in the last parliament. However, the previous government failed to deal with this problem before the General Election.
“Investors need accurate, clear and useful information to make good decisions, but under current rules they are still being supplied with misleading disclosures that double-count costs. We are calling on the new government to act swiftly to resolve these issues and I will be writing to the new Economic Secretary as soon as they are appointed. I am urging our members and other stakeholders to do the same.
“We are restating our call for investment companies to be taken out of scope of regulated cost disclosure, returning them to the position they were in before 2018."
Richard Stone, Chief Executive of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC)
“We are restating our call for investment companies to be taken out of scope of regulated cost disclosure, returning them to the position they were in before 2018. In addition, we need to see an end to the misleading aggregation of costs by investors in our sector and a fundamental reform of disclosures made to retail investors by platforms, advisers and wealth managers.
“This is an opportunity for the Labour government to chalk up an early success. Officials within the Treasury have already done much of the necessary work and resolution will not eat into any parliamentary time, allowing the new government to press forward with what I am sure will be a very full agenda.
“Front and centre of the Labour manifesto was the need for growth and wider wealth creation. Investment companies are perfectly positioned to support those aims, but to do so effectively, there must be an end to regulations that mislead investors and damage the sector.”
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Notes to editors
- The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) represents a broad range of investment trusts and VCTs, collectively known as investment companies. The AIC’s vision is for closed-ended investment companies to be understood and considered by every investor. The AIC has 330 members and the industry has total assets of approximately £273 billion.
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