Hargreaves Lansdown Review (HL): The Waitrose of the investing world

Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the largest investment platforms in the UK. They offer investing, savings, ISAs and SIPP account to over 1.7 million clients with 123bn in assets under management. The company was founded by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown in 1981 and is now listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In this review we:

• Give our ratings based on their nearest peers
• Tell you what we think of them after testing them with real money 
• Highlight the key costs, facts and figures of their accounts

Hargreaves Lansdown Expert Review

I always think of Hargreaves Lansdown as the Waitrose of the investing world. Yes, it may be a bit pricer, but I think it’s just a nicer, safer place to shop for stocks.

I’ve spoken to the founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, Peter Hargreaves a few times. First when I interviewed him over the phone and then a few follow-ups after that via email. I have to say that he’s to the point, detailed, charismatic and clearly has a huge amount of passion for the business.

Of course, Peter Hargreaves no longer runs the business, the current CEO is Chris Hill does, but the mentality of HL doesn’t seem to have changed. Hargreaves Lansdown is still one of the best investment platforms out there. Its research, market data, and market range are unrivaled. There are cheaper “free stockbrokers” out there, but your choice of investment is limited, customer service is basically a chatbot and many are still raising funds and running at a loss. Sure people complain that HL can sometimes be expensive, but in finance, you get what you pay for.

Founded in 1981, Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the largest fund management and investment platforms in the UK with 1.64 million clients (as of June 2021) and £135.5bn funds under management. Operating from its Bristol base, it offers a huge range of investment tools, ready-made portfolios, ISAs, SIPPs (pension), cash savings and foreign currency exchange. They also offer financial advice with a free initial consultation, research, webinars and guides to investment. The scale and scope of their offering mean they offer one of the widest range of choices for investors of all levels.

For those that are more risk averse HL Active Savings offers access to some of the highest-paying savings accounts.

With a history stretching back 40 decades, HL brings the security, scale and reputation of an established FTSE 100 company.

In the Good Money Guide Awards, HL is a regular winner and in 2022 won the award for “best stockbroker”, “best investing app” and “best SIPP account”. 100% of those who took the 2022 survey said they used HL for longer-term investing, with only 33% saying they also made short-term speculative investments on the platform.