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Investment product fees' downward trend is not letting up as broad market-cap-weighted index strategy managers continue to drive expense ratios toward zero, according to research from Cerulli Associates.
To remain competitive, Cerulli says, advisors must expand their definition of advice to include nonfinancial aspects of the client's life and offer a meaningful experiential process for their clients.
Cerulli reported that overall mutual fund and exchange-traded fund asset-weighted average total net expense ratios dropped from 62.3 basis points in 2014 to 46 basis points in 2018.
The report ascribed the most significant decline in fees to index products. During the past three years, index mutual fund asset-weighted average net expense ratios fell by 31.3%, while those of index ETFs were down 23.2%.
It said that within the past year, BlackRock (iShares), Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab and JPMorgan have all cut fees on existing products or added lowest-cost ones to their fund lineups, frequently pricing just below their competitors' funds in a specific peer group.
"Fees are driven downward by investor demand for low-cost index products, which have seen fees compressed to at or near zero," Brendan Powers, associate director at Cerulli, said in a statement.
Lower fees have resulted in decreased revenue, and Cerulli warns that non-overt revenue compression will also exist. "Distributor platform consolidation, product rationalization and greater advisor use of asset allocation models mean that a higher percentage of assets and flows will move through a smaller number of products," Powers said.
