Financial services is not a sector where the word 'innovation' immediately springs to mind. However, that is exactly what I, and my fellow judges, were looking to recognise when we decided who should win the 20-Year Outstanding Contribution accolade at this year's Fund Manager of the Year Awards.
The top honour went to the founders of Hargreaves Lansdown, and Stephen Lansdown accepted the award as Peter Hargreaves is recovering from heart surgery. Get well soon, Peter. So what made HL standout? It is the sheer simplicity of what it has always done in an industry which seems to confuse complexity with quality; possibly as a way of justifying cost. HL started with what now seem very basic, and almost old fashioned, paper-based reports, fund recommendations and guides, but they were just what clients wanted. Fast-forward to 2015 and now HL is a FTSE-100 listed company and stil...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
Signup and gain exclusive members-only insights - all free of charge!
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes
