Investment tools: time for a rethink?

The market for investment tools is peculiar, largely because providers have delivered tools as a ‘free’, loss-leading service. Although customers who decide to invest end up covering the costs via product charges, the levels of platform profitability across the market hardly suggest this model has worked well. Rather than pile ahead with ever more sophisticated and expensive tools, this suggests it could be time for the industry to pause and think how these tools are actually delivered and how they are paid for? In the beginning...