From November, Hargreaves Lansdown will be responsible for administering Jupiter’s retail investment trust savings and Isa schemes after the fund manager decided to withdraw from administering them.
Investors will be provided with the option to transfer their holdings free of exit charges onto the HL Vantage Platform. The proposals apply to both Isa account holders and regular savers in the Jupiter investment trust schemes.
Up to 5,000 retail clients and up to £60m worth of assets under management may elect to transfer to the platform, Jupiter’s default option, or to an alternative regulated provider of their choice.
Richard Pavry, head of investment trusts at Jupiter Asset Management, said that in recent years they have become increasingly aware that investors now expect to be able to access and manage their accounts online, in real time.
“After careful consideration, we have concluded that our current administration service is no longer able to meet our clients’ expectations.
“We have therefore taken the decision to facilitate this transfer in order to give our clients access to the more sophisticated tools fund platforms are able to provide.”
Ian Gorham, chief executive at Hargreaves Lansdown, added that they have invested heavily in improving and expanding investment trust coverage in recent years and launched a low cost regular savings scheme.
At the end of last month, Hargreaves Lansdown bought £370m worth of direct client assets previously managed by JPMorgan Asset Management, after the manager stopped offering FTSE equities, or its Sipp and cash Isa.
peter.walker@ft.com
