Weekend reading: Hargreaves Lansdown not out

What caught my eye this week.

A flood of articles this week highlighted how people are abandoning Hargreaves Lansdown in favour of other – presumably cheaper – platforms.

I wasn’t surprised to hear it, going by comments from readers on our latest broker update and the broker comparison table.

Hargreaves’ fee rejig – effective from 1 March – was the firm’s first for donkey’s years. The headline platform charge was cut, and there are lower trading costs for ETFs, shares, investment trusts, and gilts. But total fee caps will rise, along with trading costs for funds.

Whether this leaves Hargreaves cheaper or dearer for you depends on how you invest.

Yes, I said it: cheaper! Potentially.

Virtually all Monevator readers who’ve commented have said they’ll see their costs rise. But calculations show Hargreaves Lansdown will be cheaper for me if I continue to trade as I have in the past.

That’s because I invest (too) actively, of course.

Most Monevator readers are much more passively invested – and they were cannily taking advantage of quirks in Hargreaves’ old fee structure to keep their costs low.

See how they run

The big articles covering the alleged exodus – from The Financial Times, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail – are paywalled.

But this extract from the FT gives the gist:

Investment site AJ Bell said it had seen “a big spike in applications from HL customers” following the adjustment. In a typical month, AJ Bell receives inbound transfers in the high hundreds of millions of pounds from other platforms and on a normal day 10-15 per cent of this would be from HL. However, on the day after HL’s announcement this jumped to 50 per cent.

Another platform, IG, said that as of Wednesday last week, inbound transfer requests from HL had reached 94 per cent of 2025’s total volume. The mean transfer value rose from £95,000 last year to £280,000 in the same period since the fee changes, it added.

Freetrade said its average daily transfer in requests had increased threefold since January 22, compared with the average total in all of December 2025, with Hargreaves one of the leading sources.

For its part, Hargreaves said its new fees would either be the same or lower for eight out of ten customers.

The company also told the FT that almost half the transfer requests it’s seen since it revealed the new fees were from the 400,000 or so customers set to pay more from March.

Flights of fancy

I imagine all these stories were driven by data being doled out by Hargreaves Lansdown’s rivals.

Nothing like kicking a competitor when they’re down!

However I wonder if these other platforms will regret their schadenfreude someday?

I’m not here to bat for Hargreaves Lansdown – or its new-ish private equity owners. At the last count Hargreaves was host to over £150bn in assets under administration. The Bristol-based behemoth can take care of itself.

But it is interesting – and to a great extent heartening – to see how footloose at least some of its millions of customers can be.

Go back 20 years and you would have assumed the bulk of its vast pool of client money was effectively locked up. Not through any de facto gating, but through inertia, the hassle factor, and very little regulatory drive to make it easier for customers to transfer elsewhere.

For a significant cohort of customers today, though, that’s clearly not the case.

We’re ready and able to move our money in order to keep more of it for ourselves. So platforms cannot get too greedy.

Hence I wonder whether the platforms now so happy to be chosen by Hargreaves Lansdown’s fleeing customers will just be the evacuation zones of tomorrow.

No enshittification, Sherlock

Either way, our willingness to move our money should be a good defence against what’s now called enshittification – essentially when a dominant supplier first crushes the competition with a superior offering, but once secure jacks up fees and degrades its service to boost its profits.

There are just too many competing investing platforms around to allow this currently. And more are being launched each year.

Indeed if the AI-fear-driven sell-off in wealth management firms this week is any guide, the competitive pressures will only grow.

Bad news if you’re a private equity firm that bought a giant platform for cashflow, maybe…

…but good news for small and nimble private investors like us!

Wondering whether you should switch?

• Our recent platform update post highlighted the better offerings
• See our broker table for a summary of all the contenders

Have a great weekend.

From Monevator

Buffer ETFs: a strange tale of loss aversion – Monevator [Members]

Investing for the next generation: when control trumps taxes – Monevator

From the archive-ator: Adrift in the vastness on the way to FIRE – Monevator

News

UK economy grew by worse-than-expected 0.1% in final quarter of 2025 – BBC

Housing market showing ‘tentative’ signs of recovery, says RICS – Guardian

Plans to tax cash in shares ISAs to be watered down, platforms expect [Paywall] – FT

Nationwide becomes first mortgage lender to allow e-signatures – Nationwide

£9.9bn takeover of Schroders’ ends decades-long London listing – Yahoo Finance

Attempts to modernise NS&I has been a ‘full-spectrum disaster’, MPs find – Guardian

Is a four-day working week to good to be true? – BBC

Average income tax by UK area – MoneyWeek

Would you pay £7.50 for a pint of Guinness? – BBC

Dual nationals to be denied entry to UK from 25 Feb without British passport – Guardian

America’s $1tn AI gamble – Apricitas Economics

Products and services

^{Disclosure: Links to platforms may be affiliate links, where we may earn a commission. This article is not personal financial advice. When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. With commission-free brokers other fees may apply. See terms and fees. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.}

Nationwide cuts mortgage rates, offers two-year fixes at 3.5% – What Mortgage

First-time buyers see widest low-deposit mortgage choice since 2008 – Guardian

Can you get a mortgage worth six-times your salary? – Which

Get up to £1,500 cashback when you transfer your cash and/or investments to Charles Stanley Direct through this affiliate link. Terms apply – Charles Stanley

Lifetime ISAs explained: get a 25% bonus – Be Clever With Your Cash

Mapped: your home’s flood risk, now and in the future – This Is Money

Free days out with MoneySuperMarket app – Be Clever With Your Cash

Get up to £3,000 cashback when you open or switch to an Interactive Investor SIPP. Terms and fees apply, affiliate link – Interactive Investor

New ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ rules coming in July – Which

The best dummy accounts for bank switching – Be Clever With Your Cash

Homes for sale for less than £300,000, in pictures – Guardian

Comment and opinion

Talking about Your Perfect Portfolio with Cullen Roche – Humble Dollar

Should today’s 50-year olds expect to get the State pension? – This Is Money

Buying the dip is for losers – Money Changes Everything

Why the feel-good wealth effect from real estate beats stocks – Financial Samurai

Thieves don’t need much to access your financial accounts – Oblivious Investor

The big AI-driven job swap – Guardian

Markets are now a beauty contest on steroids – A Wealth of Common Sense

Five money questions every couple should ask – Morningstar

Why consensus fails – Of Dollars and Data

Swapping a six-figure income and a flat in Holborn to teach in Suffolk – Standard

There actually is a free lunch – The Net Worthwhile Weekly

Will your retirement go as planned? – White Coat Investor

The beautiful chart that busts three myths about this stock market – Morningstar

Naughty corner: Active antics

Why hedge funds got better while private equity just got bigger – Verdad

The rise of Wise – Fiscal.ai

Ponzicity – The Alt View

The bezzle and the bull market – Novel Investor

Bitcoin’s 50% collapse exposes two crypto industry myths – Larry Swedroe

Kindle book bargains

The Wealth Ladder by Nick Maggiulli – £0.99 on Kindle

How to Work Without Losing Your Mind by Cate Sevilla – £0.99 on Kindle

Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan – £0.99 on Kindle

The Retirement Handbook by Ted Heybridge – £0.99 on Kindle

Or pick up one of the all-time great investing classics – Monevator shop

Environmental factors

Are wetter winters and frequent flooding here to stay? – BBC

The hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ scenario is getting closer, scientists say… – Guardian

…as Trump revokes landmark EPA climate change ruling – BBC

Why this sustainability expert decided against a heat pump – Which

Seaweed could replace single-use plastics in medicine… – BBC

…meanwhile its drastic spread threatens marine life and fishing – The Conversation

Seahorses, seals, and sharks spotted in the Thames – Ian Visits

Robot overlord roundup

Radiology is a case study on why AI won’t replace human workers – CTV

Should we worry about how this AI just passed the ‘vending machine test’? – Sky

AI doesn’t replace work. It intensifies it – Harvard Business Review

The unsettling rise of AI real estate slop – The Atlantic [h/t Abnormal Returns]

It seems Moltbook was just performance art by humans – Forbes

Chatbots post ‘dangerous risk’ when giving medical advice – BBC

AI-generated text is overwhelming institutions – The Conversation

Not at the dinner table

The pessimist who became a prophet – FT [h/t Abnormal Returns]

We don’t need, and couldn’t afford, a Universal Basic Income – David Smith

There’s no such thing as tech: ten years later – Anil Dash

No, AI doesn’t justify lower interest rates – Paul Krugman

The real reason ICE agents wear masks – The Atlantic

Off our beat

26 ways to be a better thinker – Ryan Holiday

Write for yourself, and wisdom will follow – More To That

The cruel treatment of prisoners in the American civil war – The Atlantic

Daily caffeine could reduce your risk of developing dementia – Science Alert

Eleven interesting ideas – Derek Thompson

The workplace wasn’t designed for humans, and it shows – The Conversation

End game play – Will Manidis via X

Here’s 21 of the most beautiful gardens in the world – Homes & Gardens

And finally…

“I’d tell men and women in their mid-twenties not to settle for a job or a profession or even a career. Seek a calling. Even if you don’t know what that means, seek it. If you’re following your calling, the fatigue will be easier to bear, the disappointments will be fuel, the highs will be like nothing you’ve ever felt.”
– Phil Knight, Shoe Dog

Like these links? Subscribe to get them every Saturday. Note this article includes affiliate links, such as from Amazon and Interactive Investor.