You probably remember a time when, if you wanted to invest, you would seek advice from a financial adviser who would recommend certain investment products to suit your needs. You would then buy the investment product from a product provider (usually an insurance company or bank) and make payments to the provider.
From these payments, your provider deducted charges to pay your adviser and cover its own costs before passing the balance to your chosen investment fund, typically managed by an in-house fund manager.
While this method was commonplace for decades, it lacked a certain transparency as you couldn’t pinpoint exactly what you were paying for. It also lacked flexibility as you might use one provider for your pension savings, another for your ISA, and possibly another for lump sum investment savings.