The FCA Wants Simpler Investment Fee Disclosures — What It Means for What You Pay

If you've ever tried to work out exactly what a platform, adviser, or fund actually costs you each year, you'll know the numbers are scattered across several documents in inconsistent formats. The Financial Conduct Authority wants to fix that.

What the FCA is proposing

The FCA has opened a consultation on aligning how investment costs are explained to retail customers across platforms, advisers and wealth managers, according to reporting picked up by Sidley Austin's investment management update and Macfarlanes. The stated aim is to bring cost disclosure into line with earlier reforms already covering how investment products themselves are described, creating one more uniform approach across the entire chain — from the fund you invest in, to the platform holding it, to any adviser charging on top.

This comes alongside a broader regulatory reset: on 2 July 2026, the FCA published its policy statement PS26/14, setting final regulated fees and levies for the 2026/27 year, and the regulator has separately been streamlining rulebook requirements it says will save asset managers around £128 million a year in compliance costs.

Why cost disclosure has been such a mess

Currently, the total cost of investing can appear across several separate documents: a fund's Key Information Document, a platform's separate fee schedule, and an adviser's own charges disclosure — each using slightly different terminology and reference periods, making genuine like-for-like comparison difficult for ordinary investors. A saver comparing two seemingly similar-cost platforms today may struggle to know whether they're comparing the same thing.

What it could mean for your portfolio

• Easier comparison shopping. If disclosure formats align, comparing platform A's all-in cost against platform B's becomes a genuinely apples-to-apples exercise rather than requiring your own spreadsheet.
• More visible layering of charges. Many investors underestimate how platform fee + fund ongoing charge + adviser fee compound together; clearer aggregated disclosure should make the total drag on returns harder to overlook.
• Possible downward pressure on fees. Historically, transparency reforms in other markets have coincided with fee compression, as providers compete more directly once true costs are easy to compare.

What to check on your own investments today, before the reform lands

• Add up your platform fee, fund ongoing charges figure (OCF), and any adviser fee as a single annual percentage — most providers publish all three, just rarely in one place.
• Check whether your platform fee is tiered (falling as your balance grows) or flat percentage — this matters far more as your portfolio grows in value.
• Compare your total cost against a low-cost passive alternative for a similar asset allocation, to understand what you're paying for active management or advice specifically.

International comparison

The US SEC has pushed similar "fee table" standardisation for mutual funds and ETFs for decades through its prospectus rules, generally seen as clearer than the UK's current fragmented disclosure landscape — though US retail advisers historically faced weaker fiduciary-standard requirements than UK advisers do. The EU's PRIIPs framework already mandates a standardised Key Information Document across the bloc, arguably ahead of the UK's post-Brexit reform pace in this specific area. Australia's regulator, ASIC, mandates a single consolidated fees-and-costs template within its Product Disclosure Statements, a model closer to what the FCA appears to be aiming for.

Key Numbers

• 2 July 2026 — date the FCA published PS26/14 on 2026/27 fees and levies
• £128 million — estimated annual savings for asset managers from FCA rulebook streamlining
• 1 — the number of aligned disclosure formats the FCA wants, replacing today's fragmented approach across products, platforms and advice

Sources

• Yahoo Finance — UK regulator seeks simpler investment fee disclosures
• Sidley Austin — UK/EU investment management update, July 2026
• Macfarlanes — investment management update, July 2026

Educational content only — not financial advice.