A reader who holds the JO Hambro UK Equity Income Fund (GB00B95FCK64) through an individual savings account (Isa) provided by Hargreaves Lansdown wants to know why the dividend was paid late.
She writes: "I receive quarterly income from the fund. Over the past two years, the payment dates have crept back. For example, May's payment in 2014 was made on 28 May 2014, in 2015 it was made on 29 May and this year it was due on 31 May. Not only has the date crept back, but it was not even paid on the advertised date [in any case]. This year, the money was finally paid on 3 June, three days late.
"All my other funds due on 31 May have paid on time. Bank holidays are no excuse as it is the same every year. I wonder if other readers have noticed something too?"
JO Hambro said in a statement: "We are sorry to hear of your reader's frustrations over the late receipt of her fund dividend. The dividend was paid on time by our external fund administrator. However, a minor administrative issue experienced by our fund administrator, which affected just a handful of our fundholders, ultimately led to a slight delay in receipt of their dividends. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."
With regard to the previous years' payments JO Hambro said that on both occasions they had made the payment on time, or early if the pay date fell over a weekend or bank holiday.
Hargreaves Lansdown said: "It was unfortunate that this [year] there was a short delay before the dividend [was paid] to the client's account. While we had received the dividend, the necessary paperwork from JO Hambro was three days late, meaning we were unable to act as quickly as we would have liked. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."
With regard to the previous years' payments, Hargreaves added: "According to our records the 2014 credit was also subject to a short delay and 2015 was on time. We can only credit dividends to clients' accounts when we have received both the money and the reconciliation paperwork."
Mark Polson, founder of independent platform research consultancy, the lang cat, says that, although relatively rare, late payments can occur if there is a discrepancy in data between platforms and fund managers.
"There are two issues hiding inside this - communication between the fund manager and the platform, and then the platform's ability to apply a dividend quickly and accurately," he says.
Part of the problem occurs as a result of the pooled nominee account arrangement most investors use. If you're trading shares through a platform, within an Isa or self-invested personal pension (Sipp), you will most likely be doing so through a pooled nominee account. These accounts make it easier for platforms to trade on behalf of their clients by pooling all their clients' shares into a single account. The platform will then keep its own records as to who owns which shares and what dividends are due to whom. However, an information glitch by the fund or platform can make it difficult for the platform to allocate dividends correctly to individual investors and lead to payment delays.
"It's important to remember that fund managers don't see individual clients on platforms; they just see the total that the custodian or nominee [platform] is buying, selling or holding and expecting dividends on," Mr Polson says.
"In general terms, platforms are now pretty good at getting money out to investors within their stated timescales. Where things tend to go wrong is when the bulked up dividend payment the fund manager sends over doesn't tally with what the platform was expecting."
Although frustrating for investors when it happens, Mr Polson says he does not think this is a systemic issue.
He says: "This tends to be more of an issue with fund managers who are less automated in their back-office functions - which isn't something I'd associate with JO Hambro."
