Aberdeen EM charges

JohnnyJet

I have some funds in Aberdeen EM through HL and understand that their will be an additional fee charged levied by Aberdeen from next month for new investments. Shouldn't HL be informing people of this charge or at least mention it when you look at the fund fact sheet? Have I missed this?

Vortigern

JohnnyJet wrote: »

Have I missed this?

Discussed here recently
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4437739

JohnnyJet

Vortigern wrote: »

Discussed here recently
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4437739

Yes I read that. It doesn't state anything about HL not informing investors. I'm fairly new to this sort of thing and would expect it to be a requirement to list all the fees involved. If it wasn't for this forum I would be none the wiser. Am I expected to check each fund every few months for new charges?

Totton

Yes of course, HL should update their fact sheet but only if and when the changes affect purchases on their platform. We'll have to wait and see if any changes are made there, for example Troy soft closed some time back but that did not apply to purchases via HL.

JohnRo

So the fund is now soft closed, I thought it was still possible for investors to keep a monthly contribution going through a broker?

I ask because it looks like BestInvest have dropped it off my monthly list.

Totton

When a fund soft closes it is common for it to be removed from sample portfolios or sellers lists as they try to discourage further inflows. The BestInvest site is still advertising the fund for sale with a 0% initial charge.

http://www.bestinvest.co.uk/investment-research/fund-research/fact-sheet/abtrem/aberdeen-emerging-markets-a/investnow

HTH,
Mickey

JohnRo

They've told me it's been withdrawn (Aberdeen EM smaller companies in my case) and can't be invested via any platform any longer?

I was told by BestInvest in an email that the only way to get this fund is now via Aberdeen themselves with the additional 2% charge.

Porcupine

I made a topup of First State Asia Pacific Sustainability the other day on HL, which went through fine. I then tried to do the same on Fidelity, and they say it's 'suspended'. Digging around I find it's been soft-closed since Jan 2012. HL show no indication of this, and my monthly savings have been buying it every month just fine.

Does make me wonder if I've been paying a penalty for soft-closed funds (eg 2% in the Aberdeen case) without noticing it...

TCA

JohnRo wrote: »

They've told me it's been withdrawn (Aberdeen EM smaller companies in my case) and can't be invested via any platform any longer?

I was told by BestInvest in an email that the only way to get this fund is now via Aberdeen themselves with the additional 2% charge.

Yep, showing as "not tradable" in my BestInvest account. Think I'm going to replace with the Templeton EM smaller companies fund and might have a pop at their frontier markets fund while I'm there. I noticed by Vanguard EM tracker has newly tanked. About 5 months of gains completely wiped out.

ColdIron

Still available on HL

JohnRo

ColdIron wrote: »

Still available on HL

Hmm, here's the information I received.

The terms of a soft closure depend on each individual fund manager – in the case of this fund they have also applied the soft closure to people currently contributing to the fund, as well as any new investors, hence why this has been removed. You are now not able to purchase any additional units in this fund via any platform and if you wish to invest directly with Aberdeen they will charge you 2% for any investment you make.