We regularly review the additional expenses for our funds as part of our commitment to provide a clear indication of costs to our customers. As a result of this review, we’re updating the additional expenses we show on factsheets, fund lists and illustrations for several of our funds.
More about additional expenses
These are costs of running the underlying fund over the last year. They include things like:
- Legal fees
- Auditor fees
- Administration fees
- Other operational expenses1
They’re on top of the annual management charge (AMC). Together, they form part of the ‘Total Charge’2 for our pension and life funds. We have no control over most of these expenses.
1 As at 1 December 2023, we’ve made a change to what is included in other operational expenses, and these now include costs paid by us (Aegon) to third parties.
2 This includes a standard 1% product charge, a fixed management fee and expenses that vary with the day-to-day costs of running the fund. You may pay a different product charge in which case the Total Charge will be different.
Although we know the AMC in advance, we don’t know what the day-to-day expenses will be as they can change daily.
They are taken from the funds daily and the unit price shows this along with any gains or losses made. This is what determines the value of a customer’s policy. So regardless of the charges we show on fund factsheets and fund lists, customers are charged the correct amount.
The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed. You could get back less than you invest.
How we work out additional expenses
Every year we contact all external fund managers and ask them to provide details of the additional expenses for each fund over the last year. We then compare these with the expenses we disclosed the previous year and then round to the nearest 0.01%.
Where we display our fund charges
These are shown on our fund prices and performance pages, our fund factsheets and illustrations. These are the charges we disclose, which may differ slightly from the charges customers are actually paying day-to-day as expenses go up or down.
You can see our updated disclosed additional expenses in the PDFs below. They’re split out into separate documents for our pension and life fund ranges. Please note that the total we show on the PDFs for our pension and life ranges excludes any product or adviser charge.
What current investors need to do
Existing investors don’t need to do anything. If you’d like more information, please speak to your financial adviser. If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can visit moneyhelper.org.uk/choosing-a-financial-adviser to find the right one for you.