ING platforms get facelift

ING has reduced its fees and added more investment options to its retail master trust, OneAnswer, in a move suggesting heightened competition in the platform space is forcing managers to take proactive steps to improve their respective offerings.

The group has reopened the ING Emerging Companies Fund and added its soon to launch term allocated pension offering, along with the inclusion of three new external managers - Barclays Global Investors Australian Shares Fund, BT Smaller Companies Fund and IOOF/Perennial Value Shares Fund.

It has also reduced ongoing fees from between 5 to 35 basis points in relation to external funds, some conservative funds, the ING Cash Fund and some OptiMix funds.

According to ING executive director, Ross Bowden, the latest enhancements of OneAnswer are part of the group’s overhauling its platform strategy, and includes upgrades to its other two platforms - OptiMix and PortfolioOne.

As of September 20, Bowden says ongoing fees for its investment portfolio option within OneAnswer, which has $8.3 billion in funds under administration, will now average 1.91 per cent compared to the 2.02 per cent previously paid.

The small cap fund, which was closed to new monies in August 2002, has been re-opened following an expansion in the capacity levels of the sector, while the additional funds take OneAnswer’s offering to 56.

It will now have 23 ING options, 22 external options and 11 OptiMix manager-of-manager options.

The fee structures of the investment portfolio, personal super and allocated pension offerings have been streamlined across all three products, with fees now being expressed as one ongoing figure as opposed to two fees previously (the management fee and the investment management expense).