From 1 October 2018 the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) will supersede the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) and will introduce similar rules regarding the disclosure of costs and charges as those introduced by MIFID II as well as many other rules, which will substantially improve investor protection.
Costs and charges have a major bearing on the returns you are likely to achieve and come in many guises, but basically fall into three broad categories.
Wrapper charges; for example the cost of a bond or a QROPS, these typically have an upfront charge and annual charge and quite often have onerous early exit penalties.
Adviser charges; these (as above) usually include an upfront charge and an annual charge.
Charges for managing your assets; these can be multi-layered in that there could be a management charge applied by your fund manager, charges on the underlying investments, custody charges, local taxes and transaction costs. The latter are often the most pervasive and currently can be hidden. There may be no actual transaction charge, but just as in foreign exchange there is an implicit cost as there is a bid/offer spread on the underlying investments.
RC Brown operates in Portugal under MIFID II. If you want to see the total cost of managing your investments, we have a fees calculator on our website www.rcbim.pt, where you can see a detailed breakdown of the costs under various scenarios.
Depending on size and composition, it varies from just under 1.5% to just over 2.0% p.a., more importantly we levy no upfront fees or exit penalties.
If you would like to discuss this or any other matter in more detail, please contact us directly or visit us at Stand57 at BLIP exhibition over the weekend of 13 and 14 October.

For further information, Tel: (+351) 707502535, email: enquiries@rcbim.pt or visit: www.rcbim.pt