Putnam Investments has announced proposals to reduce management fees on retail mutual funds and to introduce performance-based fees on other funds. The move is an effort to make the company more price-competitive.
As of Aug. 1, Putnam will reduce management fees on fixed income and asset allocation funds and will eliminate “wrap” management fees on target date funds. Fixed income funds will have a 13 percent to 34 percent reduction, and asset allocation funds a 10 percent reduction.
Putnam also plans to tie performance-based fees to U.S. growth funds, international funds and Putnam Global Equity Funds. The company says these fees will go down from the standard should they underperform their benchmarks and will rise if they outperform.
Changes to fee structure and new management contracts are pending shareholder approval, the company said.
Asset-level discounts will also be linked to the fund family’s overall growth, rather than to the growth of a single fund. Every dollar invested in a Putnam mutual fund essentially benefits all Putnam mutual fund shareholders under this model, a Putnam statement released Tuesday said.