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Rumours of a tax rise in the Budget have encouraged 16% of people to plan to raid their pension pots for tax-free cash, according to new research.

Three quarters of pension savers are in the dark about their ability to contribute to a partner’s pension.

Full year pre-tax profits slumped by 26% to £269.2m at investment and platform provider Hargreaves Lansdown as the company was hit by economic headwinds.

The number of people who want to retire early has more than doubled during the pandemic from 4% to 10% and more people have clearer retirement plans.

Hargreaves Lansdown has seen the average age of clients drop from 45 to 37 in what it believes is a significant shift in its client demographics, it revealed today in its half yearly results.

Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based investment management partnership, is to transfer its investment trust savings scheme, including its ISA, Share Plan and Children’s Savings Plan, to Hargreaves Lansdown. 

The firm says that after an “extensive review of its investment trust savings scheme and the service it currently offers to investors, Baillie Gifford concluded that the long-term interests of plan holders are best served by a transfer of their investments to a specialist investment platform”.

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More than 21,000 plan holders representing £1.3bn in funds under management are set to be transferred to the Hargreaves Lansdown platform.

Baillie Gifford selected Hargreaves Lansdown following what it called “a robust and detailed process which focused on quality of service, cost, breadth of proposition and experience of managing account transitions”.

Hargreaves Lansdown offers a wide choice of investment products, Baillie Gifford said, including SIPPs, ISAs and investment accounts and all Baillie Gifford managed investment trusts are available on the platform.



Plan holders are being contacted with further details of the transfer and their options.

During the transition period existing ISA, Share Plan and Children’s Savings Plan investors will be able to add to their respective plans.



Baillie Gifford has agreed with Hargreaves Lansdown the current charging level across all plans will not change for a period of three years from the agreed transition date.

The Baillie Gifford scheme has closed to new investors.



James Budden, director of retail marketing & distribution, Baillie Gifford, said: “The increasing variety, capability and cost effectiveness of investment platforms in the wider savings market has led us to decide plan holders of our investment trust savings scheme are best served by a specialist platform.

“We selected Hargreaves Lansdown for a number of reasons, including its ability to offer efficient access to our entire investment trust range through a broad selection of savings products.”
 
Chris Hill, CEO, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “As one of the largest supporters of investment trusts we are pleased to welcome Baillie Gifford clients to Hargreaves Lansdown.”

Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown has called for mandatory annuity rate transparency and says the ABI should reinstate ‘annuity window’ rate tracking.

Hargreaves Lansdown, the Bristol-based platform and investment provider, has done a U-turn on its decision to raise charges for clients holding investment trusts including those with Vantage Sipps.

Hargreaves Lansdown has detailed a five point action plan to reform the retirement planning sector following the widespread criticism of the annuity market by the Financial Services Consumer Panel this week.

Sipps and investment provider Hargreaves Lansdown says that the latest thematic review of the Sipps sector, announced this week, is a 'push' towards larger providers but not a 'direct attack' on smaller operators.