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.
Hargreaves says it has "listened to our clients" and clients will pay no more to hold investment trusts in future than they do today. It says some may also pay less due to its new charging structure.
As part of the HL Vantage Service changes, HL told clients that from 1 March it would amend the way in which it charged for investment trusts. However, after reviewing the changes it decided not to go ahead with an investment trust charge.
A spokesman for HL said: "We deliberated long and hard about the changes required to accommodate the new regulations being introduced by our regulator the FCA and we are pleased to say that the changes have largely been well received. Clients have understood that to comply with these regulations we need to make charges for holding funds and that in turn most clients will be better off through lower fund annual management charges and lower overall investing costs.
"Investment trusts were one of the most challenging considerations. Investment trusts are covered by the new regulations, they are traded on the stock market like shares but clients tend to hold them and treat them like funds. Therefore, we decided to amend the annual charge for holding investment trusts in Vantage so that they would be charged separately from shares. This would also support extending our services around investment trusts."
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Ian Gorham, chief executive, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "We have always listened to clients and designed our service around what they want. It is clear that this particular aspect of our pricing change has been disliked. I believe it is therefore the right thing to do to revert to a charging structure that clients are happy with. Clients who hold investment trusts through Hargreaves Lansdown will therefore be better off than previously proposed."
From 1 March, as they do today, HL clients will pay no charge for holding any shares, investment trusts, bonds, VCTs, gilts or ETFs in the Vantage Fund & Share Account. In the Vantage ISA, there will be a single annual charge covering all these investments of 0.45% capped at £45 per year.
In the Vantage Sipp, there will be a single annual charge of 0.45% capped at £200 per year. Investment trusts will not be charged separately as previously proposed and HL says many clients will pay less due to the reduction in the percentage charge that it is applying to the ISA and the SIPP from 0.5% per year to 0.45% per year (with caps). In addition, the annual loyalty bonus of 0.5% per year for the Fidelity China Special Situations investment trust will still be introduced on 1 March 2014. Other changes explained in HL's letter of 15 January will remain the same.
There will also be improvements to HL's Investment Trust service, says the company. Shortly after 1 March HL will offer better online factsheets for investment trusts, with more data, information and research support together with a dedicated investment trust area of its website www.hl.co.uk providing enhanced information.
• Separately, in its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2013, HL reported continued growth with record revenue (up 13% to £158.4m) and record profit before tax (up 11% to £104.1m). Total net business inflows for the 6 months were £2.80 billion, up 70% (H1 2013: £1.65bn). Total assets under administration were £43.4 billion (up 43% on 31 December 2012 and 19% on 30 June 2013). There was ccontinued growth in active client numbers, now 584,000, an increase of 77,000 since 30 June 2013. The interim dividend was up 11% to 7.0 pence per share.