Hargreaves Lansdown in trouble?

KrullTheSaver

They used to be good. They used to be famed for handling calls in-country. As recently as last year they were winning (or "winning") industry awards. But...

So far this year they have (a) tried to tell me that the process I was using to add funds to my son's account was incorrect - I had to explain to them that not only was it the same process as last year it was the one documented on their website, (b) accepted a third party contribution to my son's JISA which took him over the limit and had to unwind the position when they noticed several weeks later, (c) have failed to act on my instruction to move my SIPP into drawdown - it's currently 30 business days and counting and they just keep telling me they currently expect it to be 20 (hah!) days after receipt, keep asking if I still want to proceed, and (d) don't even acknowledge complaints.

Is it just me or are others having trouble with HL? From where I'm sitting it seems HL management have lost control of (regulated) processes. !!!!!!?

mills112

no, i haven't noticed any issues with HL.  when i call them, the people i speak to are still uk based and they answer the phone incredibly quick for an organisation of that size.

i can still take my money out. i took out 50k just the other day from my fund & share account to open a 12 months bond and the money came the same afternoon to my nominated account.  i also had a savings account maturing last week and the money was back with me within a few hours of my request, that was 89k.  so significant amount of money withdrawn and they are paid very quickly without any problem.

my only complaint about HL was that I recently received an email from them to ask that I confirm my tax residency, which is fine even though I have been a customer for over 10 years, but hey, they may be reconfirming details for HMRC reporting, so I don't mind.  what i did mind was that their email had a button, which I am asked to click.  that then opens up a page and asks me to put in my DOB, and no doubt will be asking for further details if i fill that in!  that is a classic scam routine of receiving an email from someone who asks you to "click here" and put your personal details in!  i thought it must be a scam so i called HL and they confirmed it was them to my shock.

i told them i was not happy receiving emails from them asking me to click a button and fill in my personal details when they could have contacted me through secure messaging or sent me a letter to my home.  i am really surprised that they did this when they should know better.

wmb194

KrullTheSaver said:

They used to be good. They used to be famed for handling calls in-country. As recently as last year they were winning (or "winning") industry awards. But...

So far this year they have (a) tried to tell me that the process I was using to add funds to my son's account was incorrect - I had to explain to them that not only was it the same process as last year it was the one documented on their website, (b) accepted a third party contribution to my son's JISA which took him over the limit and had to unwind the position when they noticed several weeks later, (c) have failed to act on my instruction to move my SIPP into drawdown - it's currently 30 business days and counting and they just keep telling me they currently expect it to be 20 (hah!) days after receipt, keep asking if I still want to proceed, and (d) don't even acknowledge complaints.

Is it just me or are others having trouble with HL? From where I'm sitting it seems HL management have lost control of (regulated) processes. !!!!!!?

It's not in trouble but recently it was acquired for £5.5bn by CVC Capital et al so I think the most we know is that there's been a change in management. I think its website is dreadful but people have always raved about its customer service.

Albermarle

HL were sold to a private equity consortium in March. Maybe this is affecting their performance, staff morale etc ?
Also from being a leader in the sector, I think their IT systems etc are getting a bit dated.

On your specific points;
a) I can not comment on the detail but sounds a poor show.
b) I think clients have the primary responsibility  to monitor contribution limits to keep within the rules, but it would have been useful for HL to pick this up earlier.
c) This issue has been noted on this forum several times. A rush to withdraw tax free cash due to ill informed speculation before the budget, caused  delays across the sector. However you would have thought they would be catching up by now. 

cloud_dog

wmb194 said:

KrullTheSaver said:

They used to be good. They used to be famed for handling calls in-country. As recently as last year they were winning (or "winning") industry awards. But...

So far this year they have (a) tried to tell me that the process I was using to add funds to my son's account was incorrect - I had to explain to them that not only was it the same process as last year it was the one documented on their website, (b) accepted a third party contribution to my son's JISA which took him over the limit and had to unwind the position when they noticed several weeks later, (c) have failed to act on my instruction to move my SIPP into drawdown - it's currently 30 business days and counting and they just keep telling me they currently expect it to be 20 (hah!) days after receipt, keep asking if I still want to proceed, and (d) don't even acknowledge complaints.

Is it just me or are others having trouble with HL? From where I'm sitting it seems HL management have lost control of (regulated) processes. !!!!!!?

It's not in trouble but recently it was acquired for £5.5bn by CVC Capital et al so I think the most we know is that there's been a change in management. I think its website is dreadful but people have always raved about its customer service.

KKR are part of the consortium, and an owner I lived /worked under for a number of years, the words 'blood' and 'stone' spring to mind 

Alexland

I wasn't particularly impressed by HL when I was a customer a few years ago. They made mistakes on my accounts, were slow to correct them and were heavily promoting funds that were hobbled with sky high fees. I wouldn't rule out using them again if the offer was good enough but otherwise I'd give them a miss.

I prefer to give my long term accounts to AJ Bell, Fidelity and Scottish Widows (iWeb) all very good for what they offer.

mills112

wmb194 said:

KrullTheSaver said:

They used to be good. They used to be famed for handling calls in-country. As recently as last year they were winning (or "winning") industry awards. But...

So far this year they have (a) tried to tell me that the process I was using to add funds to my son's account was incorrect - I had to explain to them that not only was it the same process as last year it was the one documented on their website, (b) accepted a third party contribution to my son's JISA which took him over the limit and had to unwind the position when they noticed several weeks later, (c) have failed to act on my instruction to move my SIPP into drawdown - it's currently 30 business days and counting and they just keep telling me they currently expect it to be 20 (hah!) days after receipt, keep asking if I still want to proceed, and (d) don't even acknowledge complaints.

Is it just me or are others having trouble with HL? From where I'm sitting it seems HL management have lost control of (regulated) processes. !!!!!!?

It's not in trouble but recently it was acquired for £5.5bn by CVC Capital et al so I think the most we know is that there's been a change in management. I think its website is dreadful but people have always raved about its customer service.

funny you say that as I find their website to be one of the better ones for trading and finding information.  i don't like the way they hide documents though so it is never obvious where things are!

jaybeetoo

They are not as good as they used to be.  They haven’t invested in their IT to keep it up to date (their cash ISA processing is appalling - it looks like they tried to modify their S&S ISA software and so you` get messages and email that are inappropriate for cash ISAs).  Their SIPP processing is very manual.  Their customer support is variable.  If you get a good person they’re fine.  If you get a bad one (which happens too often) they are dreadful.  My biggest complaint is they don’t read messages properly so you get standard replies that have been copied and pasted that do not answer the question you wrote to them about.  I used to value the HL financial advisor I saw many years ago but I wouldn’t used them now as they only push their own products and they’re not cheap. I’ve moved my SIPP, ISA, Trading Account and cash savings away from them.

KrullTheSaver

@Albermarle: HMRC's rules are that individuals are responsible for total subscriptions across multiple managers while ISA managers are responsible for subscriptions made with their own institution. No other manager is involved here so that's an HL process failure.

I might have had some sympathy for their workload if they'd at any point told me it was going to take longer than the 20 days. Although... it was the same last year, it looks like it will be the same for the next few years, and this year the likely budgetary impact was telegraphed far in advance...

charlie12525

I transferred my SIPP from HL to CMC Invest a year or so ago taking advantage of a cashback offer from CMC.

CMC Invest are vastly inferior with their poor service.

If I see a good cashback offer from HL I will transfer back as they were OK.

masonic

I don't think there is anything to suggest HL is "in trouble" (commonly interpreted as at imminent risk of failing), so the thread title is a little clickbaity.

If they've not immediately picked up a transaction that took the annual subscriptions to a JISA above the annual allowance, then that is quite a substantial process failing. I have not tried subscribing more than £20k to my HL S&S ISA, but would expect a transaction that did that to be rejected in short order. It's hard to believe after all these years a provider of this size and heritage didn't have that measure in place.

On the complaints point, they have a regulatory obligation to treat anything that can reasonably be interpreted as a complaint as such, so if you said you were making a complaint and outlined your dissatisfaction, then more fool them if in 8 weeks time they receive notice that you've gone to the Financial Ombudsman Service and they didn't take advantage of the opportunity to settle the matter without incurring a FOS case fee.