Hargreaves Lansdown director of workplace Stephen Lefley has confirmed he will leave the business at the end of this year, after almost a decade in the role.
Hargreaves Lansdown said it had already started the process to appoint a successor, which will be led by the firm’s newly appointed chief product officer, Doug Abbott.
Abbott says Hargreaves Lansdown “remains committed to the workplace pensions market”, nd highlighted its recent multi million pound technology investment into this part of the business, through a partnership with Keystone, part of Smart Group.
This partnership will open up the full range of HL’s investment platform to workplace clients, as well as enhancing their digital experience.
In total Hargreaves Lansdown has £9bn of assets under administration in its workplace offering. This comes at a time when there is increasing regulatory pressure to meet new scale tests to reach £10bn by 2030, with credible plans to reach £25bn by 2035.
Abbott has joined HL in December, having worked for 15 years at Schroders and more recently at Vanguard. He has experience of delivering significant growth through product transformation and client-centric innovation.
Abbott, says: “HL’s Workplace brings the best of our insight, products and service to our clients, now with seamless access to the whole platform. Our recent investment with technology partner, Keystone, will see this going from strength to strength and represents our firm commitment to Workplace.”
HL provides the workplace pensions to over 520 employers, covering more than 200,000 employees.
Abbost says that HL’s commitment to supporting engagement and financial wellbeing is reflected in the fact that over 20 per cent of workplace clients invest outside the default, compared to around 5 per cent across the industry as a whole.
HL’s director of workplace solutions Stephen Lefley says: “I’m proud of what we have achieved in workplace in the last nine years, firmly holding onto our unique combination of choice, functionality and flexibility, all of which contributes to greater financial resilience and wellbeing.”
