Hargreaves Lansdown takeover agreed - around 5.4Bn

masonic

granta said:

masonic said:

orange-juice said:

I transferred some investments to HL for some cashback, and according to the offer T&Cs need to remain a customer for a minimum of 12 months which is around May '25.

If this goes ahead, I wonder if I'd be free to transfer out early?

Why wouldn't the new owner exercise its contractual right to make that deduction if you left early? I'm expecting, and budgeting, to stay for the full 12 months. The net result being I keep over 90% of the cashback paid after netting off fees.

I guess if they made a significant change to the fees or charging structure (like removing the capped charge for etfs), they might offer a no-penalty transfer out? 
&me offered me a the chance to leave early without penalty when they announced their sale to Moneyfarm.

Yes, if HL under its current or future management did this, then customers might be able to fight it for the return of any deductions. I was one of those who jumped ship when HL started charging a platform fee, and it it was quite a fight to get them to waive the then (IIRC) £25 per holding stock transfer fee plus £25+VAT account closure fee. They finally caved in just after I'd started drafting my FOS complaint. Though I think they only did this to settle complaints and did not offer a free exit to all. But a simple change of ownership that left the platform unchanged would not be a reason to void the clawback clause in the offer.

The difference between the &me sale and the HL sale is that &me was shutting down and the Moneyfarm weren't offering a comparable hands on service to customers who were migrated (not that any of us invested for that reason!)

As a more direct comparison, Fidelity hiked its SIPP fees shortly after I transferred in for an incentive a couple of years ago, and there was no suggestion that they would voluntarily release customers from the clawback term. I don't know if anyone took them on over this, but I decided to stay put as the pricing was still competitive with other providers... that is until the HL offer came along.

Albermarle

granta said:

I'm wondering whether the recent rounds of pretty generous transfer cashback offers from HL will now end if they've achieved the desired level of inflows pre-sale to private equity?

I plan to stay with them for now given the capped fee and good customer service but be interested to see how the sale affects standards.

The last two rounds of cashback offers were significantly higher than previous ones, and  tempted quite a lot of money to transfer over ( mine included) . Some of which is only earning HL a pittance due to the capped fees on ETF's etc.
It is common practice in business to make efforts to improve market share as part of being dressed up for sale.
So I would think that at best the cashback offers will revert to normal, and some attempt will be made to cull large  unprofitable customers by increasing these caps.

granta

Albermarle said:

granta said:

I'm wondering whether the recent rounds of pretty generous transfer cashback offers from HL will now end if they've achieved the desired level of inflows pre-sale to private equity?

I plan to stay with them for now given the capped fee and good customer service but be interested to see how the sale affects standards.

The last two rounds of cashback offers were significantly higher than previous ones, and  tempted quite a lot of money to transfer over ( mine included) . Some of which is only earning HL a pittance due to the capped fees on ETF's etc.
It is common practice in business to make efforts to improve market share as part of being dressed up for sale.
So I would think that at best the cashback offers will revert to normal, and some attempt will be made to cull large  unprofitable customers by increasing these caps.

Yes that is my prediction too! Even with an increased cap, the platform fees are a good deal when cashback is thrown in.

masonic

granta said:

Albermarle said:

granta said:

I'm wondering whether the recent rounds of pretty generous transfer cashback offers from HL will now end if they've achieved the desired level of inflows pre-sale to private equity?

I plan to stay with them for now given the capped fee and good customer service but be interested to see how the sale affects standards.

The last two rounds of cashback offers were significantly higher than previous ones, and  tempted quite a lot of money to transfer over ( mine included) . Some of which is only earning HL a pittance due to the capped fees on ETF's etc.
It is common practice in business to make efforts to improve market share as part of being dressed up for sale.
So I would think that at best the cashback offers will revert to normal, and some attempt will be made to cull large  unprofitable customers by increasing these caps.

Yes that is my prediction too! Even with an increased cap, the platform fees are a good deal when cashback is thrown in.

Hopefully the deal will take some time to complete and nothing will change in the interim. My SIPP transfer only completed this month as I had to register for an extension to observe a lock-in period with my previous provider. Though the SIPP cap looks relatively expensive compared to the ISA cap.

granta

masonic said:

granta said:

Albermarle said:

granta said:

I'm wondering whether the recent rounds of pretty generous transfer cashback offers from HL will now end if they've achieved the desired level of inflows pre-sale to private equity?

I plan to stay with them for now given the capped fee and good customer service but be interested to see how the sale affects standards.

The last two rounds of cashback offers were significantly higher than previous ones, and  tempted quite a lot of money to transfer over ( mine included) . Some of which is only earning HL a pittance due to the capped fees on ETF's etc.
It is common practice in business to make efforts to improve market share as part of being dressed up for sale.
So I would think that at best the cashback offers will revert to normal, and some attempt will be made to cull large  unprofitable customers by increasing these caps.

Yes that is my prediction too! Even with an increased cap, the platform fees are a good deal when cashback is thrown in.

Hopefully the deal will take some time to complete and nothing will change in the interim. My SIPP transfer only completed this month as I had to register for an extension to observe a lock-in period with my previous provider. Though the SIPP cap looks relatively expensive compared to the ISA cap.

I'm also mid-transfer into HL with my SIPP having registered for an extension. I can live with £200 etf cap given the £1500 cashback. Hoping it completes soon so that the 1 year lock-in clock starts ticking asap

GeoffTF

There is an FT article "Hargreaves Lansdown’s private equity bid could herald fees makeover" (search in Google), which suggests that HL has been losing market share and will be cutting its fees. That does not mean it will be less expensive for everyone though.

Albermarle

GeoffTF said:

There is an FT article "Hargreaves Lansdown’s private equity bid could herald fees makeover" (search in Google), which suggests that HL has been losing market share and will be cutting its fees. That does not mean it will be less expensive for everyone though.

Probably they will cut the fees for the majority of customers, whilst removing the ETF caps and reducing high cashback for transfers, being used and abused by some of the regulars on this forum, like me !