Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown, usually shortened to HL, is one of the UK's largest investment platforms. It looks after over £172bn of pensions, investments and savings for over 2 million clients, and has been helping people save and invest for over 40 years¹. Money and investments held through the platform are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 per investor if the business were to fail³.

The platform's core business is holding investments for you inside tax wrappers: ISAs, including the Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA, Junior ISAs, and pensions such as self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs)⁴. It also offers a general investment account, the Hargreaves Lansdown Fund and Share Account, for investing outside any tax wrapper, and a savings service that places cash with a range of banks⁶. This page explains what HL offers, how its charges work, how to move money in and out, how to spot scams that misuse its name, and what protection applies.

What Hargreaves Lansdown offers: ISAs, SIPPs, share dealing and savings

HL is a platform: a place where you hold and manage investments yourself, rather than a fund manager deciding everything for you. Many platforms let you hold investments inside an ISA, a SIPP or a Junior ISA, so growth and income sit inside a tax wrapper⁴. HL is one of the best-known platforms of this kind, alongside names such as AJ Bell, Fidelity and Interactive Investor, and like them it offers SIPPs and ready-made portfolios of funds for people who do not want to pick investments themselves⁵.

The main account types are:

• Stocks and shares ISA and Lifetime ISA: for investing inside an ISA wrapper. The Hargreaves Lansdown Lifetime ISA is aimed at saving for a first home or for later life. See the ISA guide for how ISAs work and how the annual allowance applies.
• SIPP and workplace pensions: self-invested personal pensions, plus the HL Ready-Made Pension Plan, where the investments are chosen and managed for you. The pensions guide explains how pension tax relief and annual allowances work.
• Fund and Share Account: a general investment account for investing outside a tax wrapper, used for share dealing in individual shares as well as funds.
• Junior ISA and bare trust accounts: investing for children, held inside or outside a Junior ISA wrapper.
• Active Savings and cash savings: a savings service that places your cash with a range of banks, with the savings side of the business run by a separate company within the group⁶. The savings guide explains how savings accounts differ.

Behind the single HL brand, different parts of the business handle asset management, advisory services, savings and fund management³, but as a customer you deal with the one HL brand online, in the app and by phone.

Funds, shares and ready-made portfolios on the platform

Once you have an account, the investment choice is wide: over 3,000 funds, shares, bonds, ETFs and investment trusts are available through the platform⁹. You can pick investments yourself, use HL's research to narrow the field, or hand the decisions over entirely.

For people who want guidance rather than a blank sheet, HL publishes a Wealth Shortlist of funds it has researched. Selection combines insights from fund manager meetings, third-party data sources and HL's own analysis tools, with checks on industry initiatives, reports and third-party endorsement¹⁰. HL says it meets all the fund managers it invests with at least once a year, or more frequently where required¹⁰.

For people who want no picking at all, HL offers all-in-one portfolio funds, where a single fund holds a spread of investments chosen to suit an attitude to risk¹¹. Its own range of funds is run by HL's in-house fund management arm, part of the Hargreaves Lansdown Group, which looks after over £15bn for nearly 1 million investors¹². The HL Ready-Made Pension Plan works the same way for pensions: the underlying funds are managed by the same in-house team².

HL also applies ESG risk monitoring across all its investment solutions, checking adherence to its ESG Investment Policy, and carries out thematic engagement with companies on climate change, community relations and fair remuneration¹⁰. A range of Sharia-compliant investments is available for investors whose faith requires it¹³.

All investments fall as well as rise in value, and you could get back less than you invest. That risk sits with you, not with HL, whichever route you choose¹¹.

How Hargreaves Lansdown charges work

HL charges for its platform in layers, and the structure matters more than any single headline figure, because what you pay depends on what you hold, how much of it you hold, and how often you trade. Current figures are published on HL's own site and change from time to time, so check them there before opening an account.

The main layers are:

• An account charge on the value of your investments. This is tiered, so the rate applied falls as the value of your account rises. Importantly, tiered account charges are applied to each account separately, rather than across all your HL accounts combined⁹. Someone holding £50,000 in an ISA and £50,000 in a SIPP is charged as two £50,000 accounts, not one £100,000 account, which can make a real difference to the total.
• Billing frequency. Annual charges are calculated and billed monthly, based on the value of investments at the end of each month⁹, so the amount taken each month moves with your portfolio value.
• Dealing charges. Buying and selling investments carries a dealing charge, which differs between funds and shares. Share dealing also involves settlement: share settlement usually takes around 2 days after the day of trade¹⁴.
• Foreign exchange charges. For overseas investments, standard foreign exchange charges apply when investments are sold and transferred as cash¹⁴.
• Fund charges. The funds themselves charge their own annual costs, paid within the fund, which are separate from HL's platform charge.

One charge HL does not make is for leaving: there is no charge to transfer your account away from HL¹⁴. Transfers out are covered in more detail below.

Financial advice is a separate, paid service

The standard HL service is execution-only: you decide what to buy and sell, and HL carries out the instruction without advising you⁸. That keeps the day-to-day cost down, but it also means the platform gives no view on whether an investment suits you.

Advice is available, but it is a separate, paid service. HL's team of qualified financial advisers offers both telephone and face-to-face advice¹¹. The process starts with an initial discussion with the advisory team to determine whether the service aligns with your needs, and no financial advice is given at that point¹⁵. If your adviser thinks you would benefit from ongoing advice, that comes with an extra charge¹⁵. Advice on transferring any secured benefit, such as a defined benefit (final salary) pension, is subject to a separate charging structure¹⁵.

Whoever advises you, the rules are the same: both independent and restricted financial advisers must agree up front how much you will be charged, when you will be charged, and how payments will be made to them¹⁶. Ask for that in writing before committing.

If you want general guidance rather than a personal recommendation, free help exists. MoneyHelper, the government-backed money guidance service, offers free information on pensions and investing, and there are free debt advice services across the UK¹⁷.

Using your account online and in the app

Most HL customers manage their accounts through the website or the HL app. Logging in uses your Username, date of birth and a six-digit Secure Number¹⁸. On top of that, HL sends a one-time code when you log in: a 5-digit code if you log in via the website, or if you use the app without fingerprint or face login set up. The code arrives by your choice of text message or automated phone call, usually within seconds¹⁸. If you use the app with fingerprint or face login, HL sends a one-off code to verify your device the first time you log in¹⁸.

Extra security layers apply to some accounts. If you have an Active Savings Account or an HL Cash ISA, or you have linked accounts with someone who does, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is already on your account¹⁸. On accounts with MFA, you are logged out automatically after 5 minutes of inactivity¹⁸.

Two features are worth knowing about because they protect your money:

• Last login display. The exact time and date stamp of your last login session is displayed in the top corner of the page each time you log in, so you can check nobody else has been in¹⁸.
• Withdrawal restrictions. Withdrawals from your HL account are made only to a UK bank account owned and controlled by you as the named accountholder¹⁸. If your nominated bank account is updated, HL uses an online checking service called Confirmation of Payee (CoP) to check the account details¹⁸.

If you forget your Secure Number, enter your Username and date of birth on the login page and select 'Forgot your Secure Number?' to reset it. Your Secure Number will be disabled after too many incorrect attempts, in which case you need to call the Client Support Helpdesk on 0117 980 9984¹⁸. HL stresses that once your Secure Number is set up, it will never ask you for the full six digits, whether on its website, by email or by phone. If you are ever asked for all six digits, even on the website itself, stop and report it¹⁹.

Money paid into savings accounts can be sent by debit card, or by a Pay by Bank service HL offers in partnership with the payment firm Ecospend. To collect a payment, HL passes your payment reference number and the amount to Ecospend, and no other information about you is shared²⁰.

Transferring investments or pensions to or from Hargreaves Lansdown

You can move existing ISAs, pensions and general investment accounts to HL, or move them away again. HL says most transfers in take two to six weeks, and it handled more than 98,000 account transfers over the past year²¹. There are no set-up or transfer fees from HL for moving an account in²¹.

There are two ways to move investments, and the choice matters:

• Transfer as stock: your investments are moved to HL without being sold, so you stay invested throughout the process.
• Transfer as cash: your investments are sold, and the resulting cash is transferred to HL²¹.

A stock transfer, sometimes called an in specie transfer, is likely to take longer than a cash one, typically four to six weeks²². For pensions, a transfer often takes between two and six weeks, but your existing provider has up to six months to action your request, so the bottleneck is usually the provider you are leaving²³. The steps involved are: check your current scheme allows transfers out, make sure you will not lose any benefits, decide which scheme to transfer into, check whether you need to pay for financial advice, ask your current provider for a transfer value, and then ask the new scheme to start the transfer²³.

Moving away from HL works on the same principles. There is no charge to transfer your account away, and no charge to convert funds, which means you remain in the market and the conversion does not count as a disposal for Capital Gains Tax¹⁴. An instruction to transfer is not an instruction to sell your investments, unless you include a specific sale instruction¹⁴. If you do ask for a cash transfer, your investments are sold as soon as possible at the standard dealing charge, and once settled the cash is sent to your new provider by faster payment or CHAPS at no charge, with standard foreign exchange charges applying to overseas investments¹⁴. One timing quirk: if you have recently made a personal contribution to an HL SIPP, HL usually waits for the tax relief to be received before transferring any remaining uninvested cash¹⁴.

Hargreaves Lansdown never cold calls: spotting scams and keeping your account secure

HL is frequently impersonated by fraudsters, and the firm is explicit about how it does and does not make contact. Hargreaves Lansdown never cold calls investors offering investment opportunities²⁴. If HL needs to talk to you about your account, it contacts you by secure message, sent to your online account²⁵. It will never contact you out of the blue on social media or messaging apps, and never pressures you into making an unplanned investment²⁵.

HL says it will never:

• ask you to share passwords, PINs, or your Secure Number²⁵;
• ask you to send money via bank transfer to a bank account, an overseas bank account or a currency exchange provider. HL says the quickest and safest way to send money is usually by debit card via its website or by calling²⁵.

If someone claiming to be from HL does any of these things, they are not from HL. Report suspicious activity to HL's Online Support team on 0117 980 9984 as soon as possible²⁴. The line is open Monday to Friday 08:00 to 17:00 and Saturday 09:30 to 12:30¹⁸.

General protections help too. Use strong and unique passwords for your online accounts²⁶. MoneyHelper notes that doorstep fraud can be deterred with a 'No cold callers' sticker, available from your local council or Trading Standards¹⁷. The same principle applies to investment cold calls, by phone or online: a genuine firm will wait while you check its record on the regulator's public register and call back on a number you look up yourself.

Service and complaints

HL's standard service is execution-only, so its support teams answer questions about your account and carry out your instructions, but do not tell you what to buy or sell⁸. The UK-based team is available six days a week to answer calls and provide ongoing help and support². The main Investment Helpdesk number is 0117 900 9000, which also handles new applications²⁴.

For corporate actions on shares you hold, such as rights issues, HL notifies customers through their online secure inbox if they are paperless, with an email alert where a deadline applies, or by post otherwise. Elections can be made by post or online via the 'online election' facility; ordinary email is not accepted⁸.

To complain, contact HL on 0117 900 9000 or by email¹³. If a complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, the consumer protection guide explains the escalation route through the Financial Ombudsman Service and the time limits that apply.

FSCS protection: platform customers versus shareholders

Investments held through HL are looked after by the platform's asset management business, which is permitted to hold client money and client assets³. Shares are held electronically through a nominee company that cannot run up liabilities of its own, and HL does not lend stock held in its service³.

If an investment business is in default, the FSCS can award up to £85,000 in compensation to any one investor³. Which? confirms the position for HL specifically: if you invested using the platform and it went bust, you would be covered by the FSCS; if you invested in Hargreaves Lansdown as a shareholder, and it went bust, you would not be covered²⁷. Buying shares in the company that runs a platform is a completely different risk from holding investments through it.

Two further points about how FSCS protection works:

• FSCS protection applies at firm level and may be shared across brands that sit under the same firm²⁸. The FSCS protection checker on its website lets you confirm which firm holds your money.
• Not everything marketed as investing is covered. Peer-to-peer platforms, for example, are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if they collapse²⁹.

The £85,000 investment limit is separate from the £85,000 deposit limit that applies to bank and savings accounts, and the two work differently: the investment scheme covers failure of the firm holding your assets, not falls in the value of your investments. Your investments can still fall as well as rise in value, and you could get back less than you invest¹¹.