Customers are being misled by fund factsheets that show out-of-date or inaccurate information, a technology company has claimed.
Research by Instinct Studios, a financial technology company, has revealed that fund factsheets from some the UK’s largest funds contain one-year performance data that is at least a month and a half out of date.
Instinct Studios’ analysis of fund factsheet documents downloaded from fund group websites in January 2015 reveals that most providers have not updated their factsheet information since November last year.
The company examined 25 of the largest funds available to UK investors based on assets under management and found only two funds – JP Morgan’s Liquidity Funds Euro Liquidity and Woodford Investment Management’s CF Woodford Equity Income – offered information as of December 31, 2014. However, Franklin Templeton, which was singled out in the research, has since hit back [link here to our new story] at the analysis.
Only two funds, JP Morgan’s Liquidity Funds Euro Liquidity and Woodford Investment Management’s CF Woodford Equity Income, offered information as of 31 December 2014.
The majority of the factsheets analysed also provided potentially misleading information, with fourteen quoting stronger one-year performance data than the figures held by Morningstar at the same time. Funds from M&G Investments, BlackRock, Artemis and Legal and General fell into this category.
Majid Shabir, founder at Instinct Studios, says that making inaccurate or outdated information available is “a regulatory time bomb waiting to explode”.
“Undoubtedly, the factsheet in its current form has had its day and now investment providers need to step up to invest in better alternatives,” he says.
©2015 funds europe
