The move by Fidelity to reduce annual management charges for direct clients, on the other hand, could be far more significant in the long run. Far too many “IFAs” are still product and provider based. This umbilical cord will need to be cut one day. With Fidelity it will be possible for the adviser to give advice, collect the fee and then have the investor contact Fidelity to put in place any or all of the advice given – without having to pay twice.

Those platforms who do not follow this lead may well have questions to answer.

So yes Axa Sesame could be huge – as a sales operation but for the advice market the direct to investor platform may be far more significant. At least we are moving towards a more level playing field where hopefully competition will reduce some of the high charges investors currently suffer and where the investor will have a choice as to how they do business.