Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK financial adviser, reports a rise in assets under management despite a 22% fall in net new business, which the firm puts down to “uncertainty about the future economic environment” on the part of investors.
In the three months to September 30, new money and transfers were roughly comparable with last year, but the firm suffered high withdrawals in July and August in the wake of the EU referendum. In all, net new business flows stood at £1.11 billion (€1.23 billion) for the period, compared with £1.43 billion net in Q3 last year.
In a statement, the firm said last year’s results were anomalously high, due to the then-recently instituted pension freedoms, and transfers of child trust funds into Junior ISAs (JISAs).
Hargreaves assets under management increased by £5.9 billion, to stand at a record total of £67.6 billion.
New active clients totalled 20,000, down 17% year-on-year – although again signups in Q3 of last year were irregularly high, due to the inclusion of 7,000 JISA clients. Overall, the firm has 856,000 clients.
Client and asset retention rates remain high at 94.6% and 93.4% for the quarter, versus 94.0% and 93.7% respectively seen in the last financial year.
©2016 funds europe
