Hargreaves Lansdown is to pilot a financial coaching programme for its clients across savings, investments and retirement planning.
In the platform’s half year results, announced this morning (February 15), Hargreaves Lansdown said although a full-advice model is not right or accessible for everyone, many clients would benefit from “additional guidance” and support, including when choosing their first investments or moving towards retirement.
“This can be done by combining the expertise of human-led advice/guidance augmented by technology and data for those clients that decide they need the next level of support,” the company said.
Hargreaves Lansdown announced last year that it will move into the advice sector, building a new “omni-channel” advice proposition that aims to bridge the gap between direct-to-consumer services and advice.
People have been really focussed on cashChris Hill, Hargreaves LansdownAnalysts at Peel Hunt said although the company’s forecasts are moving higher, it remains too early to say how successful the ‘augmented advice’ proposition will be in attracting and retaining clients.
Hargreaves Lansdown shares are currently trading at a 13 times price to earnings ratio.
“The business does have strong long term prospects, which we do not believe are being full[y] appreciated in the share price,” Peel Hunt said.
The company saw the majority of its £1.6bn inflows in the period go into its active savings service, which allows consumers to view different banks’ and building societies’ interest-paying cash accounts.
Cash is really important to people, said Chris Hill, chief executive of Hargreaves Lansdown.
“With low consumer confidence and low investor confidence, people have been really focused on cash.”
Rising interest rates have pushed the group’s cash margins up to between 160 and 170 basis points, up from between 130 and 150 in October last year.
Pre-tax profit rose 31 per cent in the six months to December 31 last year, to £197.6mn, with the group increasing its dividend from 12.26p per share to 12.7p per share.
Volatile financial markets contributed to a 10 per cent drop in the value of the platform’s total assets under administration, and net new business decreased 30 per cent to £1.6bn.
Hill, who will step down as chief executive later this year, will be replaced by Dan Olley, the current chief executive of analytics firm Dunnhumby.
Olley has been on Hargreaves Lansdown’s board since 2019.
sally.hickey@ft.com
