Baillie Gifford to transfer £1.3bn to Hargreaves Lansdown

Baillie Gifford said the long-term interests of the plan holders will be “best serviced” by the transfer of investments to the direct-to-consumer platform.

The move will affect more that 21,000 plan holders, which account for £1.3bn in funds under management.

The scheme includes its Isa, Share Plan and Children’s Savings Plan.

Baillie Gifford said Hargreaves Lansdown had been selected following a “robust and detailed process” which they focused on quality of service, cost, breadth of proposition and experience of managing account transaction.

All Baillie Gifford managed investment trusts are currently available on the platform.

Plan holders are currently being contacted with further details of their transfer and options, and during the transition the existing plan investors will still be able to add to their respective plans.

Baillie Gifford has agreed not to change the current charging level across plans for a period of three years from the agreed transaction date. It is currently closed to new investors.

The Isa annual charge is currently £32.50 plus Vat, while the Share Plan and Children’s Savings Plan have no annual charges.

Baillie Gifford director of retail marketing and distribution James Budden said: “The increasing variety, capability and cost effectiveness of investment platforms in the wider savings market has led us to decide plan holders of our investment trust savings scheme are best served by a specialist platform.

“We selected Hargreaves Lansdown for a number of reasons, including its ability to offer efficient access to our entire investment trust range through a broad selection of savings products.”

Hargreaves Lansdown chief executive officer Chris Hill said the group is “pleased to welcome” Baillie Gifford clients to the platform.