Fund manager value assessments improve - from a low bar

Scrutiny by the regulator of just 14 fund managers has found some progress since its last, dismal, review of value assessments. But, with firms still insisting on profit margins that cannot be justified rationally, Adam Samuel says there is very little evidence that reforms have brought down charges and made the market more competitive.

Adam SamuelBA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted atadamsamuel@aol.com.For links to where you can buy the second edition of 'Consumer Financial Services Complaints and Compensation', seewww.adamsamuel.com/writing.

The headlines were rather more positive than they should have been. On 10 August 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority reported that "fund managers' value assessments [were] significantly improved" and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. [1] Anyone who had actually read the July 2021 report [2] would have realised that the improvement appears to have been from a very low base.