Macquarie rebates platform discounts to investors

Macquarie has joined a limited number of platform providers that are rebating fund manager volume discounts back to clients.

The move puts Macquarie in the same league as AMP, Navigator and Sealcorp, which have been rebating the fees for a number of years.

Macquarie Advisory Services head of product and marketing Matthew Rady says the rebates come as a result of the group’s negotiations with fund managers.

“Where we have been able to use our purchasing power to obtain a discount, that rebate has been passed on to the client,” he says.

“We charge a flat fee for offering the fund, but the rebate of that is what is being passed on.”

The rebates have been between 5 to 13 per cent off the MER and are being paid on a quarterly basis, with the first payments processed at the end of last month.

Navigator also passes the rebate back through reductions in the MER. The rebating procedure at Navigator started shortly after the platform was created in the early 1990s.

AMP has recently revised its rebating procedure with investors getting a 40 per cent rebate for amounts above $100,000 on the platform.

Sealcorp director of product Dean Thomas says about two-thirds of fund managers on its platforms offer rebates.

“Some fund managers, such as Barclays, pay up to 40 per cent of the MER which is then passed directly to the investors,” he says.

“It is fully disclosed in all offer documents.”

Rady says rebates are another way of keeping costs down for investors using the platform.

“It has been no insignificant amount of money paid to the clients this month as part of the rebates,” he says.

“Many thousands of dollars have been passed back to the clients.”