The verdict in three sentences
For an Edinburgh asset manager with £1 bn of assets under management, a website rebuild is first a compliance project: product-level sustainability disclosures, up-to-date KIDs, professional versus retail investor gating and a traceable sign-off trail. The 2026 order of magnitude is £17,000 to £43,000 excluding VAT over 12 to 18 weeks, plus £260 to £690 per month for maintenance. What drives the bill is not design but the document centre and the compliance approval workflow.
What the regulator actually expects from the site
An FCA-authorised fund manager does not publish a brochure site like any other business. Every fund page is a financial promotion, and every fund using a sustainability label or sustainability-related terms has to back its claims online. The company secretary and the compliance officer become the real sponsors of the project.
| Obligation | Reference | What the site must do | Budget impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sustainability disclosures | FCA Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) | Consumer-facing disclosures and product-level information per labelled fund | £2,500 to £7,000 depending on fund count |
| Key information documents | UK PRIIPs, moving to the CCI regime | Up-to-date KIDs per share class, timestamped and archived | Included in the document centre |
| Investor categorisation | COBS 3 and COBS 4 | Entry disclaimer and professional / retail gating | £1,300 to £3,500 |
| Financial promotions | COBS 4, fair, clear and not misleading | Risk warnings, past performance rules, consistent wording | Compliance review time |
| Anti-greenwashing rule | FCA ESG 4.3.1 | Sustainability claims consistent with the fund's real characteristics | Compliance review time |
| Cookies and personal data | UK GDPR, PECR | Compliant banner, records of processing for forms | £400 to £1,300 |
The anti-greenwashing rule is the most demanding in practice: any sustainability wording on a fund page must be justified, and the web page is the first thing a supervisor or a journalist reads.
Where the £17,000 to £43,000 goes
| Item | 2026 range (order of magnitude) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Scoping, sitemap, workshops with compliance | £2,100 to £4,300 | 3 to 5 workshops, regulated content matrix |
| Design and build (20 to 40 pages) | £5,200 to £12,000 | Strategy, funds, team, stewardship, insights pages |
| Document centre with filters | £3,500 to £10,300 | KIDs, prospectuses, monthly factsheets, annual reports, search by fund and share class |
| Investor gating and disclaimers | £1,300 to £3,500 | Remembered profile, country of distribution |
| Compliance approval workflow | £2,600 to £6,900 | Draft, compliance review, publish, timestamped history |
| Second language or regional variants | £1,700 to £4,300 | Useful for EU distribution |
| Testing, security, go-live | £900 to £1,700 | Light penetration test, security headers |
Maintenance at £260 to £690 per month covers security updates, UK or EU hosting, backups and a block of hours for regulatory changes (new factsheet templates, new funds).
Three supplier profiles show up:
| Profile | Typical price | Timeline | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress theme + freelancer | £5,200 to £10,300 | 6 to 8 weeks | No workflow, KIDs uploaded by hand |
| Generalist agency | £13,000 to £26,000 | 10 to 14 weeks | Little regulatory knowledge, back and forth with compliance |
| Agency used to regulated clients | £21,000 to £43,000 | 12 to 18 weeks | Higher budget, but controls built in from day one |
Mini case study
Fiona, company secretary of an Edinburgh asset manager with £1 bn under management (illustrative scenario), runs 9 funds, 4 of them carrying sustainability-related names. Her team spends 6 hours a week uploading factsheets, swapping KIDs and checking disclaimers, or 288 hours a year. At a fully loaded £75 per hour, that is £21,600 a year.
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With a document centre fed by automated import and an approval workflow, the time falls to about 1.5 hours a week. Saving: 216 hours, or £16,200 a year. A £32,000 project pays back in about 2 years on internal time alone, before counting the reduced risk of an outdated KID staying online.
FAQ
Does hosting have to be in the UK?
UK or EU hosting is acceptable in most cases, provided processors are documented under UK GDPR. A UK-only host typically adds £25 to £70 per month.
How much compliance time should we budget?
Plan 15 to 25 hours over the whole project: scoping workshops, review of fund page templates and final sign-off. After launch, each publication goes through the workflow in a few minutes.
Can factsheets be published automatically?
Yes, if your reporting tool exports PDFs with a stable naming convention (ISIN, date). An automated import costs £1,700 to £4,300 and removes version errors.
Does investor gating protect us legally?
It does not replace categorisation by the distributor, but it shows that professional-only content is not presented as available to retail investors. Supervisors regularly look at this point.
Can we rebuild without breaking KID URLs?
Yes, and you should: a 301 redirect plan for every document avoids broken links on the platforms that point to your KIDs.
Let's scope your project. Tell us your number of funds, share classes and languages, and your approval chain: we will deliver a priced scope and a 12 to 18 week plan. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
