IFAs piled into balanced funds to maximise commission - HSBC

Funds in the Investment Management Association's (IMA's) Mixed Investment categories - which house most balanced funds - were noticeably more popular just before the commission ban, the bank said. Given balanced or multi-asset funds are, theoretically, less likely to underperform, the bank argued, clients were less likely to request a switch, allowing the adviser to keep commission for longer. Under rules set out by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), commission was banned on retail investment products from 1 January. However, advisers are in most cases allowed to retain the tr...