Aegon switches North American fund from active to passive with no change to charges

According to reports, Aegon, which employs 2,000 staff at its Edinburgh Park headquarters and another 400 throughout the UK, has stated in a letter sent to an adviser that, following a review, from 25 October its North American fund will change from being actively managed by Kames Capital to passively managed by BlackRock.

However, it then goes on to say that the risk rating and yearly charges for the fund will not change as a result.

While it does not outline the cost of the new fund, an Aegon spokesman said the total charge is 1 per cent “as a standard product charge”.

He explained: “The North American fund had no additional fund charges or expenses attached to it, so for our older packaged pension products there’s no change in the fund charge. The total charge for this fund is 1 per cent which includes product charges.”

It was, however, not made clear why the change from active to passive has not been accompanied by a reduction in the annual management charge and the number of clients affected remains undisclosed.