Explicit fees charged for managed accounts are pretty much resistant to compression, according to new research from consultant Cerulli Associates. In addition, there's still disagreement within the industry about whether consumers actually understand the fees they pay.

With the exception of unified managed accounts, Cerulli found that explicit fees charged for managed accounts — sub-advisory separate accounts, mutual fund accounts, rep-as-portfolio-manager, and rep-as-advisor accounts — haven't changed much between 2008 and 2014, with only a 3-to-6-basis-point variation. Under the surface, however, Cerulli said, "the way in which the total fee is carved up and shared among the advisor, sponsor, and money manager has not."

UMAs are another matter, however, with direct-to-consumer firms entering the market and driving down the cost of such accounts by 20 basis points. In addition, direct-to-consumer marketing keeps consumers very aware of costs, which has exerted substantial downward pressure on prices.