JP Morgan Investment Management Accused of Charging Excessive Mutual Fund Fees
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law Offices:
Fund shareholders claim JP Morgan Investment Management charged excessive fees in its JP Morgan Core Bond Fund, JP Morgan High Yield Fund and the JP Morgan Short Duration Bond Fund. They allege that the fees were as much as 525% higher than the rates negotiated at arm's length by J.P. Morgan with other clients for the same or substantially similar investment advisory services.
By charging higher fees in those funds, JP Morgan received as much as $108 million more in fees from the firm’s own management company. Moreover, higher fees were charged not withstanding the fact that JP Morgan was able to achieve significant economies of scale resulting from the increase in assets under management (AUM) annually. In addition to being charged higher fees, shareholders claim that they did not receive any tangible increase in services. Instead, those fees were used solely to serve as another profit center for JP Morgan Investment.
According to the suit, the advisory fees all were approved annually by the JP Morgan Investment Management’s board of trustees. However, the board allegedly did not devote the time and attention necessary to independently asses the investment advisory fees, did not solicit competitive bidding, and did not seek a "most favored nation" provision, which would have promoted fee parity among the different funds managed and sub-advised by JP Morgan.
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