AXA cuts platform fees

By John Wilkinson

AXA has cut the fees on its Summit platform in a move that the company admits is partly due to competitive pricing from low-cost platforms.

The pricing changes also include higher payments to advisers, with adviser remuneration now on 100 per cent of the entry fee of new business.

Other changes see adviser trails rise up to 0.55 per cent on all products in the platform for business worth up to $1 million. For any amount over and above $1 million, advisers get up to 0.15 per cent trail.

Fees for clients have been reduced by 8.3 per cent on Summit Super products and a new fee band based on the size of investment balances has been introduced. For clients with balances of between $500,000 to $1 million, there is a fee reduction of 23.7 per cent.

AXA head of platforms David Frost said changes to the pricing structure were due to both internal and external pressure.

“There has been no pricing changes to Summit for three years,” he said.

“Externally, the price move is a tactical response to the cutting of fees from other low cost platforms, but advisers are still comfortable in recommending Summit.”

AXA’s own low-cost platform, Generations, has attracted $250 million of funds under administration since its launch five months ago. The platform achieved about $40 million of inflows last month.

Frost said there has been little cannibalisation between Generations and Summit, as advisers understand the client segmentation of the two platforms.

“Our experience has been minimal churn to Generations from Summit,” he said.

“There has been less than 10 per cent crossover from existing products and we are not experiencing outflows [from Summit] to Generations.”

Frost said the platforms expect to pick up some new business as a result of super choice after July. He said AXA was working on targeting self-managed superannuation funds to switch to Summit.