Hargreaves Lansdown assets have passed the £60bn mark for the first time as chief executive, Ian Gorham moves on.
Far more interesting is the announcement that they will not offer a broking service for investors to sell their annuities. Why?
Well they have done their homework. There is longevity risk, risks surrounding value for money, costs, choice and fraud. They have made a decision not to enter the secondary annuity market at this time. And who can blame them.
On their website they vocalise being the number one investment platform in the UK for private investors, with £61.7bn under management and 836,000 clients.
Those clients will not be offered a service to sell their annuities. The risks are too high and they state, clients selling their annuity in exchange for a lump sum would be a "poor decision". It will be interesting to see which institutions will take the risk and offer the service.
Paul Brassington
Pensions specialist
Edward Mellor
Stockport
