IMA chief dismisses 'false stories' surround investments

The chief executive of the Investment Management Association (IMA), Richard Saunders, has called on savers to dismiss scare stories surrounding the industry and invest in their futures.

The IMA released new analysis examining how trading costs impact on investment returns. Costs are traditionally incurred because of investment managers making decisions in accordance with a fund's objectives and strategy for investment.

Some have suggested these are not always disclosed to investors, but the IMA has noted that all costs are included in fund literature, as required by current investment fund regulations. Using fund literature, the IMA analysed the fund accounts of a range of large UK All Companies funds.

They found that for actively managed funds, transaction costs were 0.31% of average assets with two-thirds accounted for by stamp duty. Meanwhile transactions costs totalled 0.06% in instances of tracker fund use. Mr Saunders called on people to "save for the long term."

"They do not need to be scared off by false stories that if they do so they will be ripped off by the industry," he said.