A sliding share market did nothing to deter the 1,800 private investors who signed up with Hargreaves Lansdown each week over the summer.
Shares in Britain’s No 2 private client asset manager surged by 4 per cent yesterday as it reported a record £1.43 billion of net inflows and a net 24,000 new customers in the normally quiet quarter to the end of September.
In the equivalent period last summer, net new recruits were at less than half that level at 10,000.
Hargreaves now boasts an army of 760,000 clients, 85 per cent of whom make their own investment decisions without help from professional advisers.
Ian Gorham, the chief executive, attributed the surge to the stickiness of satisfied existing clients and a flurry of interest sparked by the new pension freedoms. A lot of the new customer gains were from people transferring personal or occupation pensions to Hargreaves by opening SIPPs — self-invested personal pensions, he said.
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The volatility in stock markets seemed to have no impact on investor appetites, with share trading volumes increasing by 14 per cent compared year on year. Share prices slid in the three months amid worries about the slowdown in China, with the FTSE All Share index declining by 6.6 per cent.
That meant total assets under administration at Hargreaves fell by £500 million to £54.7 billion in spite of the customer inflows.
Small investors have become more confident about making their own investments because of the high levels of information and analysis on platforms such as Hargreaves. “A lot of people don’t want advice; they want validation,” Mr Gorham said.
He was hopeful that next year’s retail share offer in Lloyds Banking Group would introduce a new generation of novice investors to Hargreaves. Last week it said that 120,000 people had registered their interest on its website after the government confirmed the sale of £2 billion of the bank’s shares.
Hargreaves is pushing ahead with a new savings platform, which Mr Gorham said would save clients the hassle of having to change savings accounts every six months to chase the best interest rates. Its savings platform will enable savers to move providers at the click of a mouse.