Colonial boosts commissions

Colonial First State Investmentswill next week boost its adviser commissions on entry fees for retail funds by a further 20 per cent, giving advisers the full 100 per cent of the entry fee of all retail offerings.

Under the terms of the commission changes, the first commission payment will be issued on December 20 for all new Colonial retail fund business from December 1. It is understood fees to investors will remain unchanged.

Colonial First State Investment’s general manager of distribution Michael Cant says the fee changes will result in a significant remuneration increase for advisers using Colonial First State Investment’s retail funds.

Cant says the move to increase commissions is in line with Colonial First State Investment’s strategy to deliver competitive offerings to its advisers.

The move to change commissions is the second initiative made by Colonial First State Investments to give its adviser further options in the past month.

As reported inMoney Management, Colonial First State Investments last month introduced a nil-entry-fee pricing structure for its investment products, giving investors the option to pay no up-front application fees for its managed investment, rollover and superannuation funds.

The nil-entry-fee option will allow advisers to choose between an up-front commission of 3 per cent and a trail commission of 0.44 per cent, or no up-front commission and a trail of 0.88 per cent on the Colonial First State rollover and superannuation funds. The nil-entry-fee option on Colonial’s managed investment fund will pay no up-front commission, but a standard 0.88 per cent trail.

From January next year, Colonial First State Investments will also increase the frequency on trail commissions to monthly instead of its current quarterly position. The first monthly trail will be issued in early February.